Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[Multiballz]

Please .....don't besmirch my name by having it associated with Burton ......you can be so cruel sometimes

Reckon Pyke has said the same thing more than once.

 

[TheRankineFile]

I thought his name is Nick's

 

[jenny61_99]

Fog was on fire for the second half, Tex is Tex, McAdam finished high in our B&F. He did not give our forward line a chance last year with our slow forward entries and pushing our small forwards up the ground so we were picked apart by intercept defenders and smashed on the rebound.

I think it’s more to do with playing to and understanding our abilities and capability. The only difference between this and last year is time, incoming personnel and coaching, with both players AND coaches having matured more, and more finely honing their skills. you can see that we’ve worked on deficiencies. You can see that we’ve worked on our craft. This has been painstakingly put together with both hindsight and vision. It won’t always go to plan. It’s easy to train for different scenarios but the reality of playing against an opponent that wants exactly what you want means you have to be able to adapt. I think it’s clear now that Nicks has developed just as much as our players this off season. And while you complain he’s been too slow and Why didn’t he see what you could, the fact is, he knew what we were capable of then and he knows what we are capable of now. There was no guarantee that the moves you wanted then would have had the desired effect because we didn’t then have the skills to carry it off. We look like we do now.

 

[George Kramer]

I think it’s more to do with playing to and understanding our abilities and capability. The only difference between this and last year is time, incoming personnel and coaching, with both players AND coaches having matured more, and more finely honing their skills. you can see that we’ve worked on deficiencies. You can see that we’ve worked on our craft. This has been painstakingly put together with both hindsight and vision. It won’t always go to plan. It’s easy to train for different scenarios but the reality of playing against an opponent that wants exactly what you want means you have to be able to adapt. I think it’s clear now that Nicks has developed just as much as our players this off season. And while you complain he’s been too slow and Why didn’t he see what you could, the fact is, he knew what we were capable of then and he knows what we are capable of now. There was no guarantee that the moves you wanted then would have had the desired effect because we didn’t then have the skills to carry it off. We look like we do now.

Doesn’t explain playing Dawson in defence for 2 weeks when our midfield was getting smacked….

 

[George Kramer]

I think our forward is a lot better thai year. Yes Fog was great second half of the year (well done to those that didn’t give up on him!) but when do you adjust your planning for a breakout player. Ned Murph and Rowe were not multi goal kickers regardless of how deep they played. Rachele was cooked by the time Fog broke out - so it was Tex with cameos as I said. Includes McAdam averaging a goal and half a game. Also we broke the hundred barrier in 2 of the last 3 weeks last year so perhaps that was the beginning of what we are seeing (disregarded at the time as they were bottom teams)

Perhaps the coaches have a better feel for how the squads developing, the rate they can increase their instruction and depth of game plan better than those of us on bigfooty that just see the game each week?

While the Dawson move has certainly assisted us with ball movement the game style was clearly developed over the off season - and we saw it in the pre season games as well as in patches during the two losses

Finally - at some point, for all the mistakes he has made, you have to acknowledge Nicks has implemented a good game plan. Initially based on effort and contest - and now improved with half a dozen class players starting to take us to a new attacking level




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Look I’ve said Nicks has been great for our culture and I like our game plan ….now.

But you can’t deny he’s made poor decisions along the way, excusing them as maybe they know more than BF posters isn’t really a justification for those errors. It makes it worse.

Do I need to list them again? I’d prefer not to have to. He’s made a glaring one in round 2 when he dropped Butts and he played EH over Thilthorpe. so they aren’t all old mistakes. But I will highlight one from last year which was frankly inexcusable. McAdam misses against the Hawks on the fast deck of Marvel. Nicks replaces him with Crouch! A slow mid for a forward at Marvel! Crouch stinks so much he puts him on the wing!!!! Now I’m no guru but this was clearly a poor selection before the ball was bounced.

I hope he does continue to develop and remove mistakes and we win a flag!!!!! Or two!

 

[feenix67]

I think I deserve to quote myself this morning.

Of course, it's entirely plausible that RT did need those couple of games to find form and confidence, and had he been slotted straight in Round 1 we might now be seeing the reverse.

But stick to your narrative mate

 

[VictorianCrow85]

Look I’ve said Nicks has been great for our culture and I like our game plan ….now.

But you can’t deny he’s made poor decisions along the way, excusing them as maybe they know more than BF posters isn’t really a justification for those errors. It makes it worse.

Do I need to list them again? I’d prefer not to have to. He’s made a glaring one in round 2 when he dropped Butts and he played EH over Thilthorpe. so they aren’t all old mistakes. But I will highlight one from last year which was frankly inexcusable. McAdam misses against the Hawks on the fast deck of Marvel. Nicks replaces him with Crouch! A slow mid for a forward at Marvel! Crouch stinks so much he puts him on the wing!!!! Now I’m no guru but this was clearly a poor selection before the ball was bounced.

I hope he does continue to develop and remove mistakes and we win a flag!!!!! Or two!

I've been on the fence on Nicks in the early years of rebuild, there's been some positives, some negatives eg the type of thing you point out above.

Starting to now sit more on the he's the right man for the job & will get us there.

The game plan changes implemented this year are the area that impress me the most right now & the fact he's been able to get it done so well really suggests the players are completely on board:

- Midfield now trying to work the ball out with clean exits instead of the dump kick just to gain territory. If I were to guess we persisted with this as a younger rebuilding side focusing on defence with the aim to gain territory & then defend. Seems his rebuild plan was first to learn the contest, to defend & then add the offence after. Painful as hell to watch in recent times but the change seems now to have been made as we switch to a more attacking mind set.

- The manner in which we attack now & can change it up within quarters and matches. In the past we'd be predictable & go high down the line. These days we use our chip game beautifully to pick through the zone & make the opposition defend. Of course then there's our run in waves attack. Coaches seem to have done a very good job instilling when to use each method & when to use the high down the line kick too.

- Rounds 1-2 Nicks admitted we got things wrong with our shape around the contest etc & as a result our forward tackles etc were low & we allowed opposition transition too easily. Since then we've clamped down in this area, made the necessary adjustments & look far better defensively, we aren't hanging our defenders out to dry quite so often.

These are just some of the noticeable coaching tactical elements. Whether Nicks is ultimately the brains behind it or delegating to the assistants doesn't really matter at this point as it's what's happened.

- Now for one that's not game plan related, over the week we did the unthinkable & changed a winning side, sitting McHenry out to bring back Pedlar despite the former putting in a really great performance & earning coaches votes. That's not something the Crows historically do, usually it's the dont change a winning side mentality. So just a little something to keep an eye to see if more of this happens. Hopefully so, was hard on McHenry but ultimately the right call to make.

I do agree with you that Nicks has made plenty of mistakes & it's frustrating to see at times though he does seem to learn from them imo, maybe just not quite as fast we'd like at times.

Jury still out, small sample size so far this season & we'll have some challenges yet this year as sides take us more seriously & we play better sides but I think the signs are increasingly positive at this point.

 

[feenix67]

The thing with Nicks is that, since 2010, there has not been one coach who has started with such a low base and win/loss ratio. If he is to become our next premiership coach, he is going to be setting some records along the way.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

The thing with Nicks is that, since 2010, there has not been one coach who has started with such a low base and win/loss ratio. If he is to become our next premiership coach, he is going to be setting some records along the way.

Inherited a pretty terrible list, culture and all that. Throw in COVID meaning our guys couldn't even train as a group with a new coach & inexperienced kids it does impact us the worst that first season.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Inherited a pretty terrible list, culture and all that. Throw in COVID meaning our guys couldn't even train as a group with a new coach & inexperienced kids it does impact us the worst that first season.

My stance has always been his coaching style. If he continues what we've seen in the last 3 weeks I will be more than happy to see him long term. As for his losing record, well I mean even the great future hall of famer coach Ken Hinkley would have struggled to win more under the circumstances.

 

[Peter Doherty]

He's made mistakes along the way, wonder if you asked Clarkson if there's any regrets from his coaching career and what he says.

I have been unsure at times, but zooming out and seeing the longer view on his time here, he does more good than bad.

Right now the club's stocks are rising, being head coach he needs to get a lot of the credit for that.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

My stance has always been his coaching style. If he continues what we've seen in the last 3 weeks I will be more than happy to see him long term. As for his losing record, well I mean even the great future hall of famer coach Ken Hinkley would have struggled to win more under the circumstances.

TBF ....this current style was evident in stages, year 1 under Nicks ...when we still had experienced players

Once we jettisoned most of the experienced players, he adapted his natural coaching philosophy to the rebuild & teaching contested footy as stage 1

This year is not a change in Nicks philosophy .....it's a return to his preferred gameplan, given the influx of Rankine, Rachelle, and Dawson ....and natural maturation with players like Murray, Fog, Hinge ect

 

[VictorianCrow85]

My stance has always been his coaching style. If he continues what we've seen in the last 3 weeks I will be more than happy to see him long term. As for his losing record, well I mean even the great future hall of famer coach Ken Hinkley would have struggled to win more under the circumstances.

I think what we are seeing this year is there has actually been method to a fair part of it. (Doesn't mean he hasn't made mistakes along the way, he's a first time head coach so its expected really)

What I mean is building blocks of rebuild for him were first to instill hunger for the contest & to defend. Now into the later part he's instilling the method of attack he wants.

First years were painful being a dour side that couldn't sustain the type of pressure & defence he wanted us playing, especially when coupled with boring ball movement meaning kicking scores was always going to be difficult. Just imagine if Tex didn't have that crazy hot form a couple years ago carrying us to some extra wins. Fitness, inexperience & lack of personnel at times probably force his hand a little bit too. Still in some respects the best form of defence is always to be able to attack, scoreboard pressure is the best way to hurt an opponent & make them mess things up so I guess that's kind of where we are at now. Another year of experience into promising kids, another preseason of building fitness into more players to be able to sustain the way he wants us playing, it all helps.

Fortunately our recruiting department handed us two top tier players of the league in Dawson & Rankine who are helping to expedite our rise back up to a more respected side.

Hopefully the lows of the rebuild are genuinely past & now it's time to build upwards finding that balance between offence/defence.

Whatever challenges the rest of this year throws up will probably give us a better understanding of Nicks since we appear to now have a more balanced playing list than we've had in years & not quite so inexperienced either meaning how he handles these things will be more telling as we probably can't just put it all down to lack of personnel or experience.

 

[feenix67]

Inherited a pretty terrible list, culture and all that. Throw in COVID meaning our guys couldn't even train as a group with a new coach & inexperienced kids it does impact us the worst that first season.

For sure, my comment was purely on the numbers. Only Hardwick is close, and it's not even close really - 17% v 27% in year 1. Hardwick lifted Richmond to finals in year 4. It looks like Nicks is tracking similarly and as you say, given the disruption of COVID, it'll be a pretty admirable feat.

 

[VictorianCrow85]

For sure, my comment was purely on the numbers. Only Hardwick is close, and it's not even close really - 17% v 27% in year 1. Hardwick lifted Richmond to finals in year 4. It looks like Nicks is tracking similarly and as you say, given the disruption of COVID, it'll be a pretty admirable feat.

Yeah I dont much care about his W/L at this point, I care more about what I see in terms of progression. Fortunately we appear like this is the year we make that much bigger leap than the ones prior. It'll be more from this point on his W/L over the next 18 months that we won't see to it stagnate or start going way backwards like Freo have this year.

 

[Gtowncrow]

My stance has always been his coaching style. If he continues what we've seen in the last 3 weeks I will be more than happy to see him long term. As for his losing record, well I mean even the great future hall of famer coach Ken Hinkley would have struggled to win more under the circumstances.

In that first year, would any other coach seriously made any difference?

The team was on life support and Ncks had the courage to "turn the machine off. The team as it was ended.

If Nicks takes us to a flag, it will be an effort of legend.

 

[ABAB]

Doesn’t explain playing Dawson in defence for 2 weeks when our midfield was getting smacked….

Understandable in the 1st round since we started so well in the 1st half with Laird and Berry virtually not contribute anything so he was backing them to respond as there's no way they can be so shit for an entire game.......but round 2 against Richmond.

 

[George Kramer]

He's made mistakes along the way, wonder if you asked Clarkson if there's any regrets from his coaching career and what he says.

I have been unsure at times, but zooming out and seeing the longer view on his time here, he does more good than bad.

Right now the club's stocks are rising, being head coach he needs to get a lot of the credit for that.

I’m sure Clarko has, the thing is some on here don’t even acknowledge them as mistakes, hence the argument continues

 

[TheRankineFile]

I’m sure Clarko has, the thing is some on here don’t even acknowledge them as mistakes, hence the argument continues

Clarko thought he made a mistake once .. but he was wrong.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

In that first year, would any other coach seriously made any difference?

The team was on life support and Ncks had the courage to "turn the machine off. The team as it was ended.

If Nicks takes us to a flag, it will be an effort of legend.

Ask dual premiership Coach Pagan ....what it was like at CARL with a poor / young list .....Barrassi back at MELB after premierships at Nth Melb

No cattle, doesn't matter who the coach is ....and you can make all the positional changes you like, won't make a diff

We still had 8 wins last year ....wasn't a shabby season

 

[TheRankineFile]

Ask dual premiership Coach Pagan ....what it was like at CARL with a poor / young list .....Barrassi back at MELB after premierships at Nth Melb

No cattle, doesn't matter who the coach is ....and you can make all the positional changes you like, won't make a diff

We still had 8 wins last year ....wasn't a shabby season

And coaches have a limited "shelf life". 5 to 7 years is about the max at one club realistically ....

 

[WaynesWorld19]

And coaches have a limited "shelf life". 5 to 7 years is about the max at one club realistically ....

Used to be the case .....that coaching landscape is changing these days

 

[The Perfect Stranger]

I don't think we will sack Nicks this week, maybe next week. The football we are currently playing is breathtaking. Good on him.

 

[TheRankineFile]

Used to be the case .....that coaching landscape is changing these days

Example? Other than Chris Scott who bought the league last year.

 

[The Perfect Stranger]

Would not want Buckley anywhere near the club.

Agree. Buckleys ego is bigger than the club. Still can't believe he and Eddie made Malthouse step down in the middle of a premiership window. It takes a massive ego to do that.