Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[Peter Doherty]

Clarkson won't come here. Our players have terrible skills.

It's like last year they made a start in trying to address it with Parnell, Rachele and Taylor.

 

[Dewy006]

Lose to WCE at home this week and does his position become untenable?

I said before the year that if we went backwards in the Win Loss column he wouldn’t see next season. The extension we gave him will be costly.

 

[CrowFrenzy]

I've defended Nicks in the past given the horrendous state of the list but he hasn't had a great fortnight.

 

[UcantCme]

Nick's came into a club in crisis, the list, culture, footy Dept and the front office was all broken.

We have made progress with the footy Dept and culture but our list still has significant holes due to years of poor recruitment.

What is confusing for me is the inconsistent messaging from the club. We here that we need to expose our list but then we play the likes of Matt Crouch

5

Matt Crouch

Age

29

Ht

183cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

28.4

5star

K

12.0

4star

HB

16.4

5star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.9

5star

CL

4.8

5star

D

24.9

5star

K

9.7

4star

HB

15.1

5star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.4

3star

CL

4.4

5star

D

21.2

5star

K

10.4

4star

HB

10.8

5star

M

4.4

4star

T

3.4

5star

CL

2.0

4star

ahead of Pedlar and Shoenberg

We also here the CEO, Adam Kelly and Nicks say the club won't measure 2022 on wins and losses but Nicks says weekly he picks a side to win each week..... Now I get that narrative but are we picking a side to win, or picking a side to expose our list and develop together?

Bottom line is we need more star power, footy IQ and elite skills in the team.... Until then we can fix the culture elements, improve the footy department but we need star power to compete with better sides



On CPH2211 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[1970crow]

Lose to WCE at home this week and does his position become untenable?

I said before the year that if we went backwards in the Win Loss column he wouldn’t see next season. The extension we gave him will be costly.

Nah, he’s safe into next season.

 

[Sanders]

Freo's had much longer to hit the draft and rebuild their list, not to mention get games into them. Not sure there's much genuine comparison between the coaches at this time due to both clubs being at very different points in their respective cycles.

They could have, perhaps they ought to, but they did not hit the draft and rebuild

They were selling draft capital left and right and centre to recruit big name top ups to avoid rebuilding under Ross Lyon.

 

[Sanders]

They didn't want to move Pyke, he told them he was quitting and they spent 2 weeks trying to convince him to stay. He knew he'd lost the playing group though and wasn't going to recover it.

Maybe we knew how crap the market was for available coaches?

 

[Sanders]

The simple fact is we weren't prepared to make the hard calls on senior players after 2018. We got rid of low hanging fruit and rewarded mediocrity by giving long contracts to blokes who didn't warrant them. We have consistently overrated our senior players and hung on to them far too long.

We simply don't have the senior talent to sustain the path we are taking. We have to rip the bandaid off, take the pain, and acquire more talent. We can't keep banging on about effort and working harder, our group works plenty hard. There's just no polish.

Our 2017 GF was built on an even year, a soft draw and two good home finals. If our LMC was professional, they would have seen it for what it was and used the trade currency to refresh. It would have been unpopular but it also would have been correct. Because we didn't, we now have to take the pain.

But we won't.

Absolutely agree. Particularly about the overrating our fluke year in 2017.

We were better in 2016.

I keep banging on about it, but we finished top in 2017 with a record only good enough for 7th place in 2016.

We expected to keep growing and developing further from 2017, like we weren’t even yet near our peak.

That hasn’t proven to be correct

 

[Sanders]

Please correct me if I am wrong. Didn't it take first time coaches Clarkson and Hardwick quite a number of years to win their first flags as coaches? Also, I seem to recall that both Clubs (Hawthorn and Richmond) more than once before they won their flags considered giving them the bullet.

Your memory is on the Fritz. Clarkson was appointed in 2005 and won his first flag in 2008.

He knocked us out the finals in 2007

 

[Sanders]

I've defended Nicks in the past given the horrendous state of the list but he hasn't had a great fortnight.

Joined today

 

[Sanders]

Nick's came into a club in crisis, the list, culture, footy Dept and the front office was all broken.

And in the final 8, coming into last round of the season.

Nicks wasn’t appointed to oversee such a deep rebuild, no one expected what happened

 

[relapse]

Please correct me if I am wrong. Didn't it take first time coaches Clarkson and Hardwick quite a number of years to win their first flags as coaches? Also, I seem to recall that both Clubs (Hawthorn and Richmond) more than once before they won their flags considered giving them the bullet. They both built on what they had but from memory it took them more than 4 or 5 years to get the results they have now. They worked with what they had and over time they achieved. How can we be sure that 1) they will reach the pinnacle again without another 4 or 5 years working with a group of footballers (and no guarantee that will happen) and 2) that our current coach will not lead us to the same destination?

Clarkson won a flag in his 4th season and while it took longer for Hardwick to win a flag, both coaches took their teams from bottom to the finals in their 3rd season. Nicks is miles away from that.

History shows that most rookie coaches don't survive for more than 2-3 poor seasons. If Nicks survives 2022 and gets a 4th season then he's moving into very rare territory.

 

[CrowFrenzy]

Joined today

You only discuss the AFC on Bigfooty?

I will be your friend.

 

[Bay62]

Nick's came into a club in crisis, the list, culture, footy Dept and the front office was all broken.

We have made progress with the footy Dept and culture but our list still has significant holes due to years of poor recruitment.

What is confusing for me is the inconsistent messaging from the club. We here that we need to expose our list but then we play the likes of Matt Crouch ahead of Pedlar and Shoenberg

We also here the CEO, Adam Kelly and Nicks say the club won't measure 2022 on wins and losses but Nicks says weekly he picks a side to win each week..... Now I get that narrative but are we picking a side to win, or picking a side to expose our list and develop together?

Bottom line is we need more star power, footy IQ and elite skills in the team.... Until then we can fix the culture elements, improve the footy department but we need star power to compete with better sides



On CPH2211 using BigFooty.com mobile app

John Olsen always says that what the board is looking for is “improvement”

Which can be interpreted as more games won or development of players. When they come to assess the year, I’m sure they’ll consider both

 

[hippyhippy]

I still don't think nicks can bring us success... there is no gameplan, no gameday coaching moves.. actually nothing I've seen shows he's the man that can take afc anywhere.....

However in his defence, not even malcolm blight would be able to do anything with our current list imho.

 

[cleanhands]

You only discuss the AFC on Bigfooty?

I will be your friend.

He does get a bit obsessed

 

[WetCrow1991]

Absolutely agree. Particularly about the overrating our fluke year in 2017.

We were better in 2016.

I keep banging on about it, but we finished top in 2017 with a record only good enough for 7th place in 2016.

We expected to keep growing and developing further from 2017, like we weren’t even yet near our peak.

That hasn’t proven to be correct

Far better in 2016. Then we go and weaken our best 22 by getting rid of Jarryd Lyons so we could keep a completely finished Scott Thompson for 1 more season.

 

[WetCrow1991]

Nick's came into a club in crisis, the list, culture, footy Dept and the front office was all broken.

We have made progress with the footy Dept and culture but our list still has significant holes due to years of poor recruitment.

What is confusing for me is the inconsistent messaging from the club. We here that we need to expose our list but then we play the likes of Matt Crouch ahead of Pedlar and Shoenberg

Have we made much progress then?

 

[Sanders]

You only discuss the AFC on Bigfooty?

I will be your friend.

I don’t believe you

 

[Sanders]

He does get a bit obsessed

Ssssh Alex

 

[CrowBox89]

The club have an interesting period to judge nicks I feel, West Coast then the bye followed by Gold Coast away and North in Tassie followed by Melbourne at home.
Nicks needs a win against west coast to silence the jungle drums but then a loss to Gold Coast will only sound them again before north in tassie which has not been a happy hunting ground for us. Nicks needs to win the the west coast and north games or I think the pressure mounts to the point the club will move on him with a loss to Melbourne at home.
Nicks currently appears to be coaching for the now like a guy who needs to get to 'x' wins, the young players aren't developing, can it be we drafted all these duds or that nicks can't coach and develop them?
If nicks was to be moved on, I would not be against seeing what Scott Burns

Scott Burns

Age

49

Ht

181cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.2

5star

K

10.5

4star

HB

8.7

5star

M

5.0

5star

T

2.8

4star

No current season stats available

D

19.6

5star

K

13.0

5star

HB

6.6

4star

M

4.6

5star

T

3.0

5star

could do with the team for a 8 week block, a Clarkson/worsfold/buckley pupil.

 

[MRB37]

The club have an interesting period to judge nicks I feel, West Coast then the bye followed by Gold Coast away and North in Tassie followed by Melbourne at home.
Nicks needs a win against west coast to silence the jungle drums but then a loss to Gold Coast will only sound them again before north in tassie which has not been a happy hunting ground for us. Nicks needs to win the the west coast and north games or I think the pressure mounts to the point the club will move on him with a loss to Melbourne at home.
Nicks currently appears to be coaching for the now like a guy who needs to get to 'x' wins, the young players aren't developing, can it be we drafted all these duds or that nicks can't coach and develop them?
If nicks was to be moved on, I would not be against seeing what Scott Burns could do with the team for a 8 week block, a Clarkson/worsfold/buckley pupil.

The problem with saying "Can Nicks develop players?" is we didn't develop many under Pyke either.

 

[Redline]

The problem with saying "Can Nicks develop players?" is we didn't develop many under Pyke either.

That's probably right in terms of youth but I felt a number of players got better under Pyke. The problem is a number of then left the club.

 

[CrowBox89]

The problem with saying "Can Nicks develop players?" is we didn't develop many under Pyke either.

completely agree on this, but it was clear what a major part of nicks job would be and that's developing young players for a finals tilt in a few years time, a lot of which were first round picks. Where as pyke was taking over a team that was in finals contention and playing for the now, its no excuse for the lack of development under pyke but say 30% of list needed developing under him compared to near on 90% under nicks, nicks is meant to be developing a playing group yet currently making selection decisions that don't reflect this.
if we were to take Dawson out the side, things would be a lot worse then what they currently are and is patching over the cracks somewhat, as many have said nicks is using him as a mr fix it to minimise the damage rather than the weapon by foot he should be.
using the rising star as a measure we have had 4 in nicks time, the fact that our 3 rising star nominees from the last 2 seasons have been playing sanfl, say their development has stagnated, whether this is purely a nicks thing or not he has had the support around him now since end of 2020 when changes were made to his coaching group, its year 3 of his coaching tenure even if according to the club its not about wins and loses then the development hasn't been there that was expected this year and that ultimately falls on nicks as coach.

 

[Sanders]

The problem with saying "Can Nicks develop players?" is we didn't develop many under Pyke either.

And all those Pyke people have gone.