Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[WaynesWorld19]

Cox was a 200cm beanpole when he was drafted...

Who has already played 27 games .....majority in his 1st year

 

[Mutineer]

Who has already played 27 games .....majority in his 1st year

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news.com.au/sport/afl/nik-cox-to-trial-new-positions-in-vfl-before-bombers-return/news-story/816d1e4bab5bca8e96cf9baae153bec6%3famp

 

[George Kramer]

This is an easy thing to say ......but it's illogical

Midfield you say is weak, when most posters would agree that Laird & Dawson were the main offenders in the first half
So who are you going to bring from the SANFL, into that midfield, who's in-form and would have made a difference ?

Berry & Schoenberg would have made zero difference on the weekend .....bring them in, and the week after, people will be advocating for them to be dropped

The argument you're presenting is, all our youth in the SANFL are ready to play AFL and in-form .....this isn't reality.

Every AFL Club's reserves side is chock-full of high draft pick talent ......why aren't they being played ? .....because, they're developing & not ready, or not in AFL form
We're still the 2nd youngest side in the AFL ....how young do you want us to go George ?

Elijah Tsatas has been killing it in the VFL .....hasn't played an AFL game
Nic Cox likewise can't get a game
Draft Pick #5 and #8 respectively

I understand people want change this week ....understandable & warranted .....and I support good form being rewarded after a poor performance .....but they have to be better than the incumbents

So who warrants a game on form, Nankervis ....Crouch if you believe SANFL form mimics AFL form, which clearly it doesn't
And, IMO McAdam adds another fwd weapon to the side

You’ve quoted a post regarding our lack of sanfl options as perceived by some, then you highlight our lack of midfielders and then reckon that has nothing to do with our drafting? Does not compute.

You can refer to development but our sanfl team includes Berry and Hately, plus our sub was Schoenberg. Now if they aren’t up to it, where are our other midfield options? Taylor fair enough has been injured.

You gave 2 examples of players who’ve missed due to injury, besides breaking into Essendons midfield is decidedly harder than ours!!

Nankervis could have played which would have left Jones around the ball. Mistake.
Yesterday you suggested Sloane down back just so you can keep him in the side, yikes. Whose place is he taking by the way? And you’d effectively push Nankervis one player back in the pecking order.
Schoenberg would have been better than Sloane who was awful.
McAdam should be playing, he’s too good for sanfl and instead we’ve got Murphy who gives us one good game in every 6.

What you need to face up to is we aren’t perfect. You keep throwing up excuses even when it’s clear we’ve made mistakes and even when Nicks owned up to one.

 

[rabidcrow]

The only people who'd be paying attention would be shows like footy classifieds. Everyone else tends to just operate on ladder statistics. But if you watch enough games you realise the commentators nearly always say the following about every team 'this team / player is the best (insert skill / the most exciting / dynamic) in the comp'. I watched a several games of several teams over a few weeks one year Derm was saying and I think he said for each team the exact same skill and how this team was the best in the comp. Hilarious. Its purely said to get engagement from that teams viewers.

They dont rate Nicks they just say s**t to make us buy into that they are on our side...right before they openly barrack for the victorian opposition all day and Healy makes it sound like we are the dirtiest team in the comp with all the free kicks the umpires miss for our opposition.

Rubbish - we have outperformed expectations coming into the year. We have ticked the hard to beat at home box, we have ticked the statistical profile box and can still see a fair amount of blue sky with player development to come. We have had a heap of players take large steps of improvement.
And the journos have seen that and report accordingly. Our percentage, wins against highly ranked sides have supported that view. Plus we are a genuinely good team to watch when we are on which is why Nicks has gained some kudos this year

What we clearly haven’t done is be good enough to win away - and we have generally struggled with that even in good years with experienced sides. Hopefully we can address this with this group soon
And coming into this year there were clear questions over our midfield and backline. Our backline has come along in leaps and bounds with Max Hinge Murray and Milera all stepping up
Our midfield has improved with Dawson going in there, and Rach, Pedlar and Soligo have shown good signs. But still not good enough

Now could we be better if those young 3 were given more time in the middle (ie a Nicks issue) - possibly
Do we trust that Burgess and the high performance team is allowing for maximum time in the middle for the young guys or is Nicks holding that back by wanting to play the older players in front of them against Burgess recommendations?
I think (or would like to think) they are managing those players workloads and that’s what dictates who is getting CBA’s this year - and we will see a more obvious change next year after another pre season

It I don’t think the media are fan boying Nicks for laughs. Our rebuild - with the squad we have, is tracking well and would compare positively against other rebuilds.


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[Kane McGoodwin]

It seems to me if plan A doesn't work, we lose.

Perhaps Nicks should try not giving the players a pregame address before our next away game.

Get the players thinking for themselves...

 

[adelaidecrows]

Rubbish - we have outperformed expectations coming into the year. We have ticked the hard to beat at home box, we have ticked the statistical profile box and can still see a fair amount of blue sky with player development to come. We have had a heap of players take large steps of improvement.
And the journos have seen that and report accordingly. Our percentage, wins against highly ranked sides have supported that view. Plus we are a genuinely good team to watch when we are on which is why Nicks has gained some kudos this year

What we clearly haven’t done is be good enough to win away - and we have generally struggled with that even in good years with experienced sides. Hopefully we can address this with this group soon
And coming into this year there were clear questions over our midfield and backline. Our backline has come along in leaps and bounds with Max Hinge Murray and Milera all stepping up
Our midfield has improved with Dawson going in there, and Rach, Pedlar and Soligo have shown good signs. But still not good enough

Now could we be better if those young 3 were given more time in the middle (ie a Nicks issue) - possibly
Do we trust that Burgess and the high performance team is allowing for maximum time in the middle for the young guys or is Nicks holding that back by wanting to play the older players in front of them against Burgess recommendations?
I think (or would like to think) they are managing those players workloads and that’s what dictates who is getting CBA’s this year - and we will see a more obvious change next year after another pre season

It I don’t think the media are fan boying Nicks for laughs. Our rebuild - with the squad we have, is tracking well and would compare positively against other rebuilds.


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Im not in Australia and dont get access to the footy panel shows. So I dont know what goes on there.

Im just speaking on game day telecasts where they just talk up players and coaches. But generally its because they are trying to win over the viewing public and engage them. Why? because its well known some people put the tv on silent and listen to 5AA or Triple M. Its a PR exercise. Sure some comments could be genuine, I am not that skeptical. Nicks has genuinely good list overall to work from and sometimes the way we play is awesome. Not denying that.

I still dont think we have exceeded expectations though because if you go through history of clubs who do do a genuine rebuild, a rapid rise up the ladder actually is statistically and historically proven to happen all the time. We exceeded expectations of the lazy I hate Adelaide crowd who literally only predict us to spoon it out every year while they back all their Victorian teams. But I expected us to win around 10-11 games this year, primarily on the back of our home games. Saw enough last year to expect it. However based on our developmental want to play the same 25 guys this year I am expecting us to win the same amount next year as a maximum.

 

[conVINCEd]

Mistakes being made that I don’t like but - our improvement in percentage and (hopefully) wins this year, players committing long-term to the club and individual player improvement has been impressive.

Jones, Murray, Hinge, Dawson, Fogarty, Rankine, Pedlar, Milera, Worrell, O’Brien have all improved under Nicks.

Rachele and Soligo have shown their talent, but still settling in only year two.

Thilthorpe’s development is slower than we want but turning a Showdown is handy.

No rush to move Nicks on from me.

 

[Milo Cyrus]

Perhaps Nicks should try not giving the players a pregame address before our next away game.

Get the players thinking for themselves...

Can we get them to handle the selection meeting as well?

 

[Redline]

No rush to move Nicks on from me.

I still think we are going through the easier time for a coach. It shouldn't be that hard to make finals after a number of years as coach. Consistently making and winning finals is when you really find out about a coach.

I don't think many are suggesting there is a rush to move him on.

The much harder question is if we miss the finals do you give him and extension into a 6th and 7th year or let him go into the last year if his contract In 2024.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Expectations have been exceptionally low the last few years due to our results

Even now when things start looking up a bit and there's a hint of expectation, then we cop a result like Sunday vs Essendon it gets rationalised away: "Where did everyone have us preseason?"

If expectations are low enough then success is achievable. Should we expecting more?

Yeah, we're a young team. Why are we still the youngest team or close to it in Year 4 of our rebuild?

 

[AFC979810]

Expectations have been exceptionally low the last few years due to our results

Even now when things start looking up a bit and there's a hint of expectation, then we cop a result like Sunday vs Essendon it gets rationalised away: Where did everyone have us preseason?

If expectations are low enough then success is achievable. Should we expecting more?

Yeah, we're a young team. Why are we still the youngest team or close to it in Year 4 of our rebuild?

Preseason - I had us with a good enough list to make the finals if our head coach was good enough.

I think thats still the correct answer.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I'd love to see our scoring if you removed Tex's goals. We'd be sub 100 points every game and sub 60 on a bad day. When he goes, goodbye Matthew Nicks

Matthew Nicks

Age

49

Ht

187cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.6

3star

K

9.4

4star

HB

4.2

3star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.7

4star

G

0.7

4star

No current season stats available

D

6.6

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.4

4star

G

0.4

3star

.

 

[skam85]

I'd love to see our scoring if you removed Tex's goals. We'd be sub 100 points every game and sub 60 on a bad day. When he goes, goodbye Matthew Nicks.

Very reductive argument.

When Tex goes, we likely will drop a little, but it's not like we're going to be kicking into an empty hole in the forward 50 where Tex would be.

Fog, TT, McAdam, Rankine, Rachele, Pedlar will all increase their scoring output as they will be targetted more.

 

[MrBarry]

I'd love to see our scoring if you removed Tex's goals. We'd be sub 100 points every game and sub 60 on a bad day. When he goes, goodbye Matthew Nicks.

It's somewhat of a pointless argument as the ball will just get kicked to other forwards. I would expect fogartys output to go up a lot when tex leaves for instance.

 

[1970crow]

I'd be giving him 2 more years at this stage.

Why? He’s contracted for next year, why extend him now? What’s the risk waiting to see how this year concludes and/or the first part of next year?

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Very reductive argument.

When Tex goes, we likely will drop a little, but it's not like we're going to be kicking into an empty hole in the forward 50 where Tex would be.

Fog, TT, McAdam, Rankine, Rachele, Pedlar will all increase their scoring output as they will be targetted more.

I'm hoping Pedlar and Rachele will be midfielders. With Rankine I think we've seen his ceiling but that's fine because his best is very good. Fog, Thilhorpe and McAdam though. We've seen Fog can go up a level and maintain it. Those other two are still pretty flakey.

What we really can't cover is Tex's on-field leadership. We look so rudderless when he's not there.

 

[WetCrow1991]

If he supports Rory 'Pay me big dollars to be a liability' Sloane being offered an extension then that is final confirmation that he isn't serious about the club improving and therefore has got to go.

 

[John Who]

Expectations have been exceptionally low the last few years due to our results

Even now when things start looking up a bit and there's a hint of expectation, then we cop a result like Sunday vs Essendon it gets rationalised away: "Where did everyone have us preseason?"

If expectations are low enough then success is achievable. Should we expecting more?

Yeah, we're a young team. Why are we still the youngest team or close to it in Year 4 of our rebuild?

The fact we have more media praise and general expectations is a sign we’re improving. The question now becomes will this trend in improvement continue and for how long?

You don’t judge a team on a bad loss, but for the entire season. We beat Port and Lions convincingly, and no one would dare call them a crap team this year.

 

[MRB37]

Why? He’s contracted for next year, why extend him now? What’s the risk waiting to see how this year concludes and/or the first part of next year?

Shouldn't even consider extending him until around this time next year to gauge where he's at.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

Why? He’s contracted for next year, why extend him now? What’s the risk waiting to see how this year concludes and/or the first part of next year?

Not what I meant sorry. I was replying to someone who suggested I'm saying sign him up for life. I know he is contracted next year and provided we don't go backwards next year I'd give him two more years at that point.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

I'd love to see our scoring if you removed Tex's goals. We'd be sub 100 points every game and sub 60 on a bad day. When he goes, goodbye Matthew Nicks.

Couple of weeks back we had 6 in the top 45 goal scorers for the year, I think next closest was 4 at Brisbane and collignwood. Best thing about that, 5 of them are 23 or younger and we have Welsh coming soon. Not too worried about Tex, he probably has another 2 years in him anyway

 

[rabidcrow]

Expectations have been exceptionally low the last few years due to our results

Even now when things start looking up a bit and there's a hint of expectation, then we cop a result like Sunday vs Essendon it gets rationalised away: "Where did everyone have us preseason?"

If expectations are low enough then success is achievable. Should we expecting more?

Yeah, we're a young team. Why are we still the youngest team or close to it in Year 4 of our rebuild?

Because our drafting through 2013-17 was terrible and we have only a handful of players still on the list from that period. So we have a few pre 2012 guys and then mostly 2018 onwards on the list. With a sprinkling in between


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[texanmike]

If he supports Rory 'Pay me big dollars to be a liability' Sloane being offered an extension then that is final confirmation that he isn't serious about the club improving and therefore has got to go.

My gut feel is he won’t be extended.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Because our drafting through 2013-17 was terrible and we have only a handful of players still on the list from that period. So we have a few pre 2012 guys and then mostly 2018 onwards on the list. With a sprinkling in between


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Regardless, we've been young/inexperienced all four seasons. Not a group collectively growing. Enough anyway

Our actual rebuild isn't four years old sadly because we spent a couple of years Poholke-ing around the place before we actually started building

Nicks can't do much about what he inherited but what hurts is players like Worrell only having a handful of games to their name. That's 100% on Nicks. Is Nankervis the next one?

 

[WetCrow1991]

My gut feel is he won’t be extended.

I hope so.