Review R22: The Good, Bad and Ugly vs. Footscray

[George Kramer]

Isn't one of our issues that we get scored against quickly? Do we need a defensive aspect to our play? I think it worked in patches ie. that 2nd qtr against hawthorn, against Geelongs absolute avalanche, the Bulldogs had it in their front half most of the game. Nicks is damned if he plays the kids and damned if he doesn't make finals.

You could have had 3 players on Stewart that night, we kept kicking it to him. I'm done with Pedlar as well, delist him.

You can't just magic good midfielders into a side, it takes development and training. Soligo was a couple of weeks behind due to an injury and did Nicks not put him in the middle? Rankine is special but we only have 1 of him.

Walker goes down, he has Burgess, Gollant or Berg to choose from. Were there kids in the SANFL midfield that were racking up 30+ a game to replace the Vanilla midfield? Any small forwards with 3+ goals a game getting dudded to keep Murphy or McHenry in the side? No, Murphy sucks but he is just slightly better than McFumbles (not a high bar, but a bar)

Incorrect (there is at least one mistake he admitted to):
View attachment 2080932


Anyway:

Good: Nicks Coaching against the Bulldogs <--- on topic.

We had the 9th best defence last year, he made a change to improve that and at the end of 4 rounds we went from the highest scoring to the lowest.

You know why we kept kicking it to him? Do you know why we struggle against opposition intercept defenders? Because 1) early in the season we moved the ball so slowly we gave them time to set up their defence and clog our forward line so we eventually bomb it long and we are out numbered 2) his gameplan pushes Murphy up around the contest meaning we are outnumbered

When did Rankine go in the middle, he didn’t start the season there. Soligo he slowly introduced to the midfield. Previously he liked to play him on the wing.

In terms of kids, what’s your thoughts on making Nank sub after he played well in the showdown for a cooked Smith?

How about going in 4 talls on a wet night and then being concerned when it rained?

Yes he admitted one mistake last year. What about this year? Where’s his acknowledgment he got it wrong going too defensive? If he didn’t get that wrong why hasn’t he continued it? Instead we get bullshit like shape.

We are going to miss finals again due to in part the errors this guy has made and somehow he’s got a fan club that just shrugs their shoulders and makes excuses for him. It’s mind blowing.

As for his coaching against Bulldogs, if Tex didn’t get injured, would we have seen Curtin get a run up forward where he looked good?

And it’s interesting you’re making excuses for his mistakes when you’ve already said he’s made mistakes and you’ve changed your mind in giving him a 2 year extension.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Incorrect (there is at least one mistake he admitted to):
View attachment 2080932

That one led to one of the funnier exchanges I've seen on BF.

 

[CrowBloke]

I did my record based on lists available to the coaches.

Hang on --- you did your 4 best and 4 worst current Coaches based upon their player list??
Ah, ok.
You, the Club and Nicks are on the same page then --- it's the List Management's and the players' fault...?

When looking at Nicks people seem to forget the list he inherited was cooked, physically and mentally from the camp saga and the 17 GF.

So "cooked" that 4 of them are still playing (although Smithers who was in great form back then missed the GF), 7 years later <== that speaks to their resilience and not to physical/mental exhaustion.
Lever (who was mentally in Melbourne when he played the GF), McGovern (who was pissed at what Lever and others were getting paid) and Cameron all chased better $s. Betts, who was very unhappy about 'The Camp' left at end of 2019. None of those 4 were a problem for Nicks; they were goneski.
Nicks inherited about 15 of the Grand Final team and a bunch of youngsters.
The Seniors would've been unhappy and miserable for sure, realising their Flag dreams were over which has been set in stone by Nicks' ineptitude and failure to make even an Elimination Final, let alone a GF.
Nicks was brought in to fix the Club culture and unite the players which he has done. However:
--- he threw his future in with those seniors (let's face it, Sloane would still be in Nicks' best-22 but for the eye injury), backing them, selecting them again and again even when it was clear they were not performing
--- he was and still largely is clueless as to how to manage/develop the kids
--- his selections were based on seniority and player favoritism, NOT actual game day impact.

It's pretty unfair to compare him to coaches that have come in with a list ready to compete or coaches that have coached for 10+ years.

I repeat: I have given Nicks a free pass for 2020 and 2021. His record since then is underwhelming.
Tom Mitchell was a rookie Coach, too, but has taken his kids to likely Finals in 2 years. To be fair, Mitchell has pedigree having trained and played under a Master of Coaching and Future Coaches in Clarko.

But finally, an admission of reality:

If Nicks was sacked tomorrow then he of course would have to be ranked last of all coaches as his record is poor,

Well said. It's a fair statement of Nicks' career to date.
Making Finals in 2025 will be good for 2025, but it will not undo the disappointments of the last 5 Nicks' years which we've all endured.

hopefully for all of us it turns around next year and his record improves and adds finals wins to his CV

To be brutally honest, I don't give a Blighty toss bag about Nicks' CV.
**** his CV.
I want the Crows to win Flags/GFs and until they do under Nicks I will never think of him as a successful Crows Coach.
Let's suppose the Crows won 18/23 games next year (that'd be a great Minor Round) --- it would leave Nicks with a W/L of 43.7% ... !!! Nope; the only thing that would redeem him in my mind is a Flag, or more.

We're stuck with him until at least the bye of 2025 (I'd say) and can do nothing but hope for some Crows' wins and success.
Before he became a sensationalist muck-raker, Dr. Phil used to say, correctly, that the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour. No AFL-flag-winning Coach has started like Nicks in their first 5 years. The best of them take to Coaching like a duck to water; they just have those X-factors of character/personality/footy nous that breed success. Think: Sheedy, Fagan, Malthouse/Woosher, Blight, Leigh Matthews, Chris Scott, Roos, Clarko and his Flag-winning disciples Beveridge, Hardwick and others.

Serious question, not a goad nor provocative: do you honestly believe Nicks has what it takes to take the Crows to a Flag? I do not. Look at what the Coach does during games and what he says afterwards in his pressers.
I hope, too; we all do (we all did after 2023 as well), but I have no faith or belief in the bloke at all any more.

 

[CrowBloke]

Murphy- less said the better

I disagree.
The more said about dropping Murphy, the better, yet Nicks picks him, week after week after week.

 

[CrowBloke]

Incorrect (there is at least one mistake he admitted to):

One. Maybe two or three? ... out of how many?

How about "Nicks rarely admits when he is wrong, or makes a mistake"? <== this is not a positive.
You'd have to agree to that, surely.

 

[FR0GGY]

That one led to one of the funnier exchanges I've seen on BF.

Was that John who denying that it was actually a mistake? Or Wayne denying that it was said even though I posted the audio and he refused to listen to it?

 

[FR0GGY]

Incorrect (there is at least one mistake he admitted to):

That was last year, I think George was referring to this year?

 

[Gtowncrow]

Favouritism:
We don't have any other small forwards, apart from McHenry. We lost Betts, Cameron, Stengle and then Newchurch wasn't very good. We have Rachele more as a HFF and Rankine is a hybrid mid/fwd. We are way to top heavy (talls) and we lack small forwards.


Retaining Senior Players:
I think with Hinge, MM, Nank and Bond coming in its the right time for Smith to exit stage right. Hasn't been the same player since his 2017 Knee (and that 666 rule). You do need experienced players on every line to kind help control situations or assist with direction but when you are trying to hack the ball out of mid air into Laird's face its time to go.

We need Laird, as much as I hate it, we need him and his 2nd half of the year has been much better. He holds onto the footy, he uses his hands more and doesn't do those stupid blind kicks corner kicks (as much? Any longer?).


Lack of Plan B:
Agree its something that needs urgent attention, when we don't have control of a game it goes badly wrong. I think Nicks should be down at boundary line but he does need more senior experience in the box as well. Someone who has some match day nous to see things before they unfold. Plan B is only Plan B when it works, there could be 9 plans but if the players can't carry it out it a bit of a nonsense. Hard enough to get Plan A right sometimes.

Mistakes/Stubbornness
I think he has admitted some mistakes? I know he has used the term "we got that wrong" in a couple of press conferences this year.


Thats all from the Matthew Nicks Apologist hour for the time being

"I think with Hinge, MM, Nank and Bond coming in its the right time for Smith to exit stage right."

I know you were being serious but this gave me a chuckle...it's where he's kicked the ball repeatedly for years so an appropriate exit strategy for him as well.

Still smiling...

 

[Stephen2]

Was that John who denying that it was actually a mistake?

One of my favourites, I won't forget quickly.

"We can't know it's an error, because we can't see what happened in alternate universes where we did it differently!"

I'm starting to think that dude is a master troll, rather than a passionate slightly illogical guy!

 

[davos44]

One. Maybe two or three? ... out of how many?

How about "Nicks rarely admits when he is wrong, or makes a mistake"? <== this is not a positive.
You'd have to agree to that, surely.

The statement was that he has never admitted to "any" errors (mistakes). This was more out of humour than a vehement argument

 

[davos44]

"I think with Hinge, MM, Nank and Bond coming in its the right time for Smith to exit stage right."

I know you were being serious but this gave me a chuckle...it's where he's kicked the ball repeatedly for years so an appropriate exit strategy for him as well.

Still smiling...

Glad I could make your day!

 

[George Kramer]

The statement was that he has never admitted to "any" errors (mistakes). This was more out of humour than a vehement argument

Given we were talking about this year I was talking about this year, know of any mistakes he’s owned up to this year?

And it was more of a deflection than anything

 

[StonesThrow]

Dawson really isn't suited to midfield.

We played him there as we lacked class in the middle.


With the emerging Sog and Rankine, and Curtin playing, Dawson really should spend less time in there.


Dawson is slow in releasing the ball. Yes a great kick. But he takes time to get hand to foot. And struggles with the quick handball. Hence he had issues being tagged.


His best role is to be the guy that plays every where, depending on the game situation. Including stints in the middle. Which is what he has been doing recently.

Also a pretty good stopper.

I would put him on JHF this week.


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This is crazy talk imo. He was AA last year playing his first year as a midfielder.