Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[FR0GGY]

It all depends on how well we’ve drafted and we’ve made some costly misses with top draft picks.

Hamish has to go

Theres probably no harm for a change, surely cant do any worse. Bring him back in if we have to, but only when our picks are in a worse position.

 

[Sanders]

No plan, no scheme just confusion

Robert Shaw 2.0

 

[GROTTO]

We should look at Ken, it looks like he may be out of a coaching position very soon.

 

[GreyCrow]

Dont get deluded with what kind of rebuild we are in here.

Its certainly not a quick flash style rebuild - needing a trade or 2 plus a couple years decent picks to add to a decent list to jump back into finals and retaining coaching staff.

And its not a medium size rebuild where the foundations of a premiership squad are still middle aged and contributing week in week out to build around, but a few aging players have had to be retired to force the youth injection

This is a full blown clean out, largely only the club jumper is escaping the broom here. Coaching staff, game plan, CEO, 5 years of forcing mid range B to C grade players out who still have adequate AFL level footy in them in exchange for picks to strip the age demographic of the club. The only aging players to survive the cull have been absolute club icons and leaders, and players who are on reasonably cheap salary who if removed would be counterproductive in the rebuild either financially or due to their on-field leadership and knowledge.

We have 25 players 22 or under.
Geelong have 13
Melbourne 19
Bulldogs 15
Port have 18

As that number moves below 20 I fully expect our onfield performance to improve as the younger players have developed their AFL fitness, bodies, and adapted to the AFL level. I believe this is the kind of rebuild that many of the top teams have endured which has seen them remain in contention / win flags for periods of 5 to 10 years.

Its not who we are playing - we all recognise the inexperience

Its where we play our experienced players. Thats the talking point. If we believe we are in a rebuild and will lose games - then why try and stem the tide by filling our midfield with experience.

Sink or swim the kids through there with 1 experienced player

 

[George Kramer]

We’ve extended Nicks so he’s not going anywhere.

Also hard to judge given the cattle he’s got to work with. Is his current game plan is first choice or is it restricted due to the players at his disposal? Hamish and the clubs previous poor retention hasn’t given him a lot to work with.

That being said he’s responsible for selections and the midfield set up.

 

[Slippery Pete]

Always a worry when the coach thread is bumped.

I had my money on post-Showdown, but looks like it’s come a week early.

 

[MrBarry]

Its not who we are playing - we all recognise the inexperience

Its where we play our experienced players. Thats the talking point. If we believe we are in a rebuild and will lose games - then why try and stem the tide by filling our midfield with experience.

Sink or swim the kids through there with 1 experienced player

Exactly this, everyone understands we are in a rebuild. But why are we not pumping as many games as possible into getting the young guys into the midfield. It's as you say, like we are trying to keep the band aid off (it's basically clinging on now), when we should be ripping it off totally.

 

[Sanders]

We’ve extended Nicks so he’s not going anywhere.

It all depends on the terms, we would definitely have given ourselves outs

 

[1970crow]

I think Nicksy will go at the end of next year and we will pay him out a year.

Our 2020 year was so bad under him that we were always going to improve and there have been some signs but we are still a long way off and a big contender for the spoon.

I'd settle for a bit more improvement from inderviduals. Not so much Rachele or Thilthorpe who are naturally talented but some of the others.

He survives this year no matter what IMO. Even a winless (won’t happen) won’t shift him. And I think it’d need to be pretty dire late in 2023 for him to not see at least some of what is currently his final year.

I’d have been happy with a 1 year extension but in AFL world that’s painting a massive target on his back. So I understand why it didn’t go down like that.

 

[1970crow]

We should look at Ken, it looks like he may be out of a coaching position very soon.

We’ve already got his Mini-Me. With the added bonus of a season to pick up a bit of polish from Leon Cameron.

 

[Sanders]

I’d have been happy with a 1 year extension but in AFL world that’s painting a massive target on his back. So I understand why it didn’t go down like that.

We only know the headlines, not the clauses, conditions, targets & outs.

We went early (fine, not fine, whatever) I’m sure there must have been some triggers put it to offset the early decision

And I’m very far from convinced he survives another really bad season

“We love what he did bringing faith and confidence back to our young troops but now it’s time for a grown up to take over” - I can see the announcement now

 

[1970crow]

It all depends on the terms, we would definitely have given ourselves outs

The first year is fine, should be full $. The second needs to be considerably less as it was 1 too many and a chance to be paid out. If he turned out good, there’s not a club that wouldn’t sit down and renegotiate the ‘pay out’ year to keep a quality coach. Or it’s full of triggers.

 

[Sanders]

The first year is fine, should be full $. The second needs to be considerably less as it was 1 too many and a chance to be paid out. If he turned out good, there’s not a club that wouldn’t sit down and renegotiate the ‘pay out’ year to keep a quality coach. Or it’s full of triggers.

It’s full of triggers. He hadn’t proven enough to negotiate a contract without them.

 

[1970crow]

It’s full of triggers. He hadn’t proven enough to negotiate a contract without them.

I don’t have that much faith in us yet. Board still wields influence at senior coaching appointment level and Roo remains on the board. They had a good bbq where it turned out they couldn’t have agreed more with each other. I worry about Roos influence as footy focussed director.

 

[Sanders]

This is ****ing horrific

I’ll say it again Robert Shaw 2.0

 

[moogerfooger]

“We love what he did bringing faith and confidence back to our young troops but now it’s time for a grown up to take over” - I can see the announcement now

Yup. And he would have gone into the job knowing that's the most likely way his tenure ends. He doesn't have any leverage until he gets runs on the board. Signing him early was likely more about retaining players.

 

[George Kramer]

Watching the replay and our game plan sucks.

Slow ball movement when you don’t have the skills isn’t going to work. Eventually you’ll need to pull the trigger as the opposition blocks you up and the turnover results anyway. In the meantime you’ve robbed your forwards of any chance of space and the opportunity of catching the opposition on the rebound and putting them under pressure. Effectively you’ve taken away a way of scoring. Look at what the Hawks did to Port, they lost all key indicators but burnt them on the rebound.

We are more worried about not being smashed than we are winning but we lost by 42 anyway.

As for our skills, deplorable. Missed handballs and kicks. What the **** have been doing in the preseason?

 

[Jamezy88]

Nicks will probably escape a lot of attention/criticism if the mob down the road continue to implode. The noise to “sack Ken” will be a lot louder for now, allowing Nicks
to escape a lot of the pressure.

Once Kenny goes though, it could change pretty quick.

For what it’s worth I’d be happy to give him at least until the end of next year allowing another pre season under Burgess…admittedly the early signs so far this year are not promising.

 

[GROTTO]

Nicks will probably escape a lot of attention/criticism if the mob down the road continue to implode. The noise to “sack Ken” will be a lot louder for now, allowing Nicks
to escape a lot of the pressure.

Once Kenny goes though, it could change pretty quick.

For what it’s worth I’d be happy to give him at least until the end of next year allowing another pre season under Burgess…admittedly the early signs so far this year are not promising.

It may have been just a one match sample size, but the way we played in the opening game of the season in that first half and the way we choked at the end, were not good signs of a Club aiming to progress. Freo were missing several key players that day and playing away. They look like potentially at this stage not making the 8, which makes our loss against them all the more worse.

If Port can somehow get out of the contract extension they had with Kenny and get a new coach, the heat I can only imagine will be on Nicks in 2023 season. I wouldnt rule him out leaving half way through either.

In Nick's defence however, look at what he has to worth with. There is probably at most 3 Crows players that could walk into any team. Its bad when two of those players were acquired a few months ago in Dawson and Rachele.

 

[relapse]

All Nicks has really done as a coach thus far is blow up the list.

That was the easy part, pretty much any coach could have done that.

The real test is the re-build and development of our next side and I am yet to see anything that gives me confidence that Nicks is the man to be able to do this.

I honestly do not understand why the club was almost tripping over themselves trying to re-sign him at the start of the season, it wasn't like he was going anywhere.

Personally I would have waited until 2/3rds of the way through the season and if we had gone back backwards from 2021 then I would have sacked him.

 

[Interloperer]

Dont get deluded with what kind of rebuild we are in here.

etc.

All of those rebuild concepts have the same core goal philosophically, that ultimately the club will be better than when the process started. I'm sure Adelaide management don't specifically oppose this either, were it to be the outcome. But there's no real evidence that there was a goal beyond destroying expectations.

 

[Slippery Pete]

Imagine if they had to pay out another contract. That would be three coaches in succession.

 

[Jamezy88]

It may have been just a one match sample size, but the way we played in the opening game of the season in that first half and the way we choked at the end, were not good signs of a Club aiming to progress. Freo were missing several key players that day and playing away. They look like potentially at this stage not making the 8, which makes our loss against them all the more worse.

If Port can somehow get out of the contract extension they had with Kenny and get a new coach, the heat I can only imagine will be on Nicks in 2023 season. I wouldnt rule him out leaving half way through either.

In Nick's defence however, look at what he has to worth with. There is probably at most 3 Crows players that could walk into any team. Its bad when two of those players were acquired a few months ago in Dawson and Rachele.

I’d love to know what we did over the pre-season. Our basic skills and structures seemed to have relapsed massively compared to the end of last season. I’m hoping it was the late covid that went through most of the list…..but that seems to be a pretty poor excuse.

I live interstate so I don’t attend many games, but I did manage to go to the Freo game last week and sat directly behind the goals. I found what our players did with out the ball just as poor as what we did with it.

For example , our forward structure seemed very poor. All 3 key forwards would stand next to their opponent with an arm in the air asking for the ball. Absolutely no movement, no leading to create space, no blocking for each other and barely any movement what so ever. Now all of Fog,TT and Berg have their limitations but there is no reason they can’t do these basic things. Berg and TT are suppose to have good endurance for big guys, so it has to be instruction. That’s just the forwards, there’s probably example’s of this over the whole ground. Maybe I’ve been out of footy to long and that’s how everyone does it these days .

 

[George Kramer]

All Nicks has really done as a coach thus far is blow up the list.

That was the easy part, pretty much any coach could have done that.

The real test is the re-build and development of our next side and I am yet to see anything that gives me confidence that Nicks is the man to be able to do this.

I honestly do not understand why the club was almost tripping over themselves trying to re-sign him at the start of the season, it wasn't like he was going anywhere.

Personally I would have waited until 2/3rds of the way through the season and if we had gone back backwards from 2021 then I would have sacked him.

He's done more than that. He's been the key driver behind a culture change and the recent good retention of our players.

He has also had a tough time given covid, the mess our club was in and having to rebuild. I can understand why they gave him the extension, it sends a message to the players we have confidence in our direction and you should too.

We do need to see what he can achieve with a team thats not a basket case and unfortunately thats going to be a few years away given the state of our list thanks to shit recruiting and retention. The person that needs to be held to account that hasnt yet is Hamish.

Having said all that, Nicks can sort his selections out, his dumb game plan and our midfield set up now.

 

[Ramify]

It all depends on the terms, we would definitely have given ourselves outs

As in Pay-Outs?