Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[FR0GGY]

I meant in general.

Does it matter though?

 

[jenny61_99]

Neil Craig was full of it and had mates get him the job.

Bullshit. Craig was revolutionary. But he had his weaknesses that ultimately cost him his job. Not unlike every single other coach.

 

[jenny61_99]

An excellent communicator? Really. That’s what makes an elite coach. It’s not the Richmond, etc model just because we say it is. That’s just cheap talk. What has Nicks done to suggest he is the guy that can actually implement those models. He hasn’t been part of any of those systems.

As for uniting the playing group. That’s also not something that I am on board with. This playing group that downed tools can go and get f’ed. If they aren’t prepare to unite behind whoever the fu** we make head coach then they can join JJ out the door. Any player worth keeping doesn’t need uniting because they had no right to act like the way they have been in the first place. It’s not like they are doing us a favour. The club is paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. FMD. This tail wagging the dog s**t will never lead to a culture of success.

You really are a miserable person aren't you? Can't find a spark of hope in a new coach appointment not to mention moving on Campo and Burton.

 

[moogerfooger]

Only in Adelaide does it matter what school you went to. Christ we're insular.

I'm just curious how he ended up at the Panthers unless he was only at Unley for part of his high schooling. Unley High is Sturt territory, obviously.

 

[footy4ever]

The two key themes of Adelaide's game plan under Matthew Nicks

Matthew Nicks wants his players to seek out the contest and inflict damage on their opposition

m.afc.com.au

I'm liking what I've seen of Nicks so far, but I'm not a fan of coaches coming out with statements like this. “seeking out the contest” and “inflicting damage on the opposition”.

It's so 'Hinkley', and just sets the scene for more constant ridicule.

I remember Hinkley saying they wanted the opposition "to s**t themselves" every time they went near the ball...how has that worked our for ya Ken?


“It's a game of errors. It's a game of turnovers,” Nicks said.

Well, no, it's not merely a game of errors and turnovers.

“When you look at a game, if we’re winning the turnover score, it shows that we're winning a lot of contests and that we were playing the game in the positions we want to play the game in.
“If an opposition makes a mistake in their back third, well it's more than likely we're going to punish them on that. Whereas, if we spend the whole time in our back 50 it's hard to score from that area.”......this has got 'no s**t Sherlock' dripping all over it.

I'm hoping there's a strategist coming in to assist.

 

[Shaz2012]

You really are a miserable person aren't you? Can't find a spark of hope in a new coach appointment not to mention moving on Campo and Burton.

Do you keep score on how holy and virtuous you are? I just have to automatically be on board with every decision the club makes? I cant have an original thought of my own?

I have said there are a couple of positives. His playing history as a blood and a year coaching at GWS. But FMD he has been at Port for 8 out of the last 9 years. If that isnt a massive red flag I dont know what is. Unless you and I have very different opinions on Port over the last 9 years. He is the product of a basket case club, spin it as much as you like.

 

[jenny61_99]

Do you keep score on how holy and virtuous you are? I just have to automatically be on board with every decision the club makes? I cant have an original thought of my own?

I have said there are a couple of positives. His playing history as a blood and a year coaching at GWS. But FMD he has been at Port for 8 out of the last 9 years. If that isnt a massive red flag I dont know what is. Unless you and I have very different opinions on Port over the last 9 years. He is the product of a basket case club, spin it as much as you like.

Glass half empty (you) -> Miserable as hell. Glass half full (me) -> looking forward to the possibilities. I know who i'd prefer to be.

 

[skam85]

I'm liking what I've seen of Nicks so far, but I'm not a fan of coaches coming out with statements like this. “seeking out the contest” and “inflicting damage on the opposition”.

It's so 'Hinkley', and just sets the scene for more constant ridicule.

I remember Hinkley saying they wanted the opposition "to s**t themselves" every time they went near the ball...how has that worked our for ya Ken?


“It's a game of errors. It's a game of turnovers,” Nicks said.

Well, no, it's not merely a game of errors and turnovers.

“When you look at a game, if we’re winning the turnover score, it shows that we're winning a lot of contests and that we were playing the game in the positions we want to play the game in.
“If an opposition makes a mistake in their back third, well it's more than likely we're going to punish them on that. Whereas, if we spend the whole time in our back 50 it's hard to score from that area.”......this has got 'no s**t Sherlock' dripping all over it.

I'm hoping there's a strategist coming in to assist.

The thing is though, no matter what line a new coach sprouts, he will look like a numpty if it doesn't bear fruit.

 

[NikkiNoo]

I'm just curious how he ended up at the Panthers unless he was only at Unley for part of his high schooling. Unley High is Sturt territory, obviously.

We also had Tim Noonan at Unley who was playing at North while attending there. It's where you live and Unley had lots of students from outside the Sturt zone.

 

[Crowbots are dead]

I know that 95% of people disagree with me, but I just dont see how this guy is the best coach available. He has been under Hinkley at the power for 8 of the last 9 years. Port has been absolutely s**t house for most of that time and Hinkley is one of my least favourite coaches. I think Hinkley is so bad that I say a little prayer every day that he never gets the sack


So how the fu** is Nicks the best option. I dont know. Feels like we hired him because he was from SA. Maybe he was the only one of the candidates that knew he had to blow smoke up Roos arse to get the job. Will be happy to be proven wrong, but count me in as one of the 5% who is 100% against this appointment.

That will be rare for BigFooty. Most on here never admit to getting it wrong. You can’t assess someone purely on where they have been. Are you a carbon copy of your boss? We are all individuals.

 

[Golumless]

Bullshit. Craig was revolutionary. But he had his weaknesses that ultimately cost him his job. Not unlike every single other coach.

Yup, well ahead of the curve but was always missing out on the luck to truly capitalise on it.

Had a pretty quick expiry date too, as he was a one trick pony. It was a good trick though.

 

[70lethal]

So Nicks arrives at Pear under Primus (joy to the world) as development coach
He moves to defensive coach under Hinkley and they improve signiificantly to almost making a GF in 2014
He goes to GWS as senior assistant and they make their 1st GF with a few stars out injured

The record isn't horrendous

 

[relapse]

Only in Adelaide does it matter what school you went to. Christ we're insular.

I remember once seeing one of those, "You know you're from Adelaide when...." lists and not surprisingly one of the things on the list was "When you're asked what school you went to".

 

[Golumless]

An excellent communicator? Really. That’s what makes an elite coach. It’s not the Richmond, etc model just because we say it is. That’s just cheap talk. What has Nicks done to suggest he is the guy that can actually implement those models. He hasn’t been part of any of those systems.

As for uniting the playing group. That’s also not something that I am on board with. This playing group that downed tools can go and get f’ed. If they aren’t prepare to unite behind whoever the fu** we make head coach then they can join JJ out the door. Any player worth keeping doesn’t need uniting because they had no right to act like the way they have been in the first place. It’s not like they are doing us a favour. The club is paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. FMD. This tail wagging the dog s**t will never lead to a culture of success.

Communication is probably the largest part of the battle. Communication builds trust and trust builds unity after all, and to win premierships you need enough unity for people willing to put themselves in harms way.

The fact they downed tools and went into a full self survival mode tells me that this has been lacking for a long while. That is firmly on our football department for allowing 40 people to fragment in the way that they did.

Whether Nick's is the man or not, there is a damn lot of work ahead for us. Trust does not build easily once it is lost.

So Nicks arrives at Pear under Primus (joy to the world) as development coach
He moves to defensive coach under Hinkley and they improve signiificantly to almost making a GF in 2014
He goes to GWS as senior assistant and they make their 1st GF with a few stars out injured

The record isn't horrendous

I do like that he moved up to senior assistant at Port, but it's an underwhelming history.

Hopefully he performs in spite of it.

 

[Shaz2012]

That will be rare for BigFooty. Most on here never admit to getting it wrong. You can’t assess someone purely on where they have been. Are you a carbon copy of your boss? We are all individuals.

I can admit to getting things wrong and have plenty of times. I was against us getting Gibbs in 2016, then I admitted I was wrong and wanted us to pay overs in 2017 after the GF loss, then I admitted I was wrong to backflip and we shouldn't have got him at all

In terms of assessing people on where they have been, I am pretty sure that your recent work history is the most relevant thing when you apply for a new job. If your looking for a promotion to a leadership position, they will definitely look at how your previous organisation performed under you.

Nicks has been at one organisation for 8 of the last 9 years in a very senior role. We should assume that what he brings to the table is clearly reflected in that organisation now, after being there for so long, in numerous different coaching roles. If he hasnt shaped Port after being there for 8 years then why would we want him?

So its pretty reasonable to judge him at least in part by what Port have done over the past 8 years and what their positives and negatives are. I dont think we can blame him for China, or for recruiting Jack Watts or Motlop. But I think the type of football they play, their game plan, tactics, culture etc have all been heavily influenced by him. And we should expect him to take what he was doing there and apply it with us, only with more influence than he had at Port.

Is there anything from Port that you are excited to become Part of the way we play? Maybe there are some good things? I just havent rated them in the last decade. There is not one part of their game that I look and think, I would like that at the Crows. Whereas I look around, even past the top clubs like Richmond, WCE, Pies, etc and I do see a lot of things I like. Love the way Brisbane have rebuilt themselves. I think there is a lot to like about the way that Essendon move the ball, but a lot of problems there too. I actually think Carlton under Teague have got something there now. I just havent seen anything I like at Port.

 

[Shaz2012]

Communication is probably the largest part of the battle. Communication builds trust and trust builds unity after all, and to win premierships you need enough unity for people willing to put themselves in harms way.

This new focus on communication is only even on the agenda as a response to how we have completely ****ed it up at our club. It would hardly be getting a mention otherwise. So its essentially a response to a mistake and I really dont like the implication. To me it basically means that we have selected our most important senior position at our club based on a quality that might be very important for us because we are a terribly run organisation, but it is not the most important quality for success in the industry. It also removes all responsibility from the playing group for their part in the disaster that was 2019. It says the next time things dont go your way, you dont have to play the game we are paying you hundreds of thousands of dollars to play. You can sook and sulk and our members that pay good money to come and see you will be ok because your delicate sensibilities were hurt. I really hate this.

We should get the best coach that we can for the industry that we play in. If we have players on our list that cant come on board with 100% commitment to whoever we decide to hire, then they can GTFO in the next 1 or 2 trade periods. In the meantime they can play SANFL or we will use them as we see fit. Moving forward, we will do this, this and this to try not to repeat our mistakes, but if any of you players EVER ******* DOWN TOOLS AGAIN you will pay a price.

I really hope that the selection of Nicks has nothing to do with hand holding these players. We need to play the next generation anyway. Communication skills is a skill that I have no doubt every serious candidate had that is more than satisfactory for what we needed.

 

[skam85]

I can admit to getting things wrong and have plenty of times. I was against us getting Gibbs in 2016, then I admitted I was wrong and wanted us to pay overs in 2017 after the GF loss, then I admitted I was wrong to backflip and we shouldn't have got him at all

In terms of assessing people on where they have been, I am pretty sure that your recent work history is the most relevant thing when you apply for a new job. If your looking for a promotion to a leadership position, they will definitely look at how your previous organisation performed under you.

Nicks has been at one organisation for 8 of the last 9 years in a very senior role. We should assume that what he brings to the table is clearly reflected in that organisation now, after being there for so long, in numerous different coaching roles. If he hasnt shaped Port after being there for 8 years then why would we want him?

So its pretty reasonable to judge him at least in part by what Port have done over the past 8 years and what their positives and negatives are. I dont think we can blame him for China, or for recruiting Jack Watts or Motlop. But I think the type of football they play, their game plan, tactics, culture etc have all been heavily influenced by him. And we should expect him to take what he was doing there and apply it with us, only with more influence than he had at Port.

Is there anything from Port that you are excited to become Part of the way we play? Maybe there are some good things? I just havent rated them in the last decade. There is not one part of their game that I look and think, I would like that at the Crows. Whereas I look around, even past the top clubs like Richmond, WCE, Pies, etc and I do see a lot of things I like. Love the way Brisbane have rebuilt themselves. I think there is a lot to like about the way that Essendon move the ball, but a lot of problems there too. I actually think Carlton under Teague have got something there now. I just havent seen anything I like at Port.

Correct.
GWS, his previous organisation, made a Grand Final in 2019.

I didn't read the last three paragraphs as I assumed they would be valid and rational points backing up this observation.

 

[Shaz2012]

Correct.
GWS, his previous organisation, made a Grand Final in 2019.

I didn't read the last three paragraphs as I assumed they would be valid and rational points backing up this observation.

For sure. I have said that is one of his two big positives for me. So no argument there. But in all seriousness, you dont have to be a HR recruiting expert to apply a bit of logic here. What were GWS like before Nicks and with Nicks. They took it an extra step and made their first grand final - big tick. They played some unsociable, finals-like football - big tick. Then you have the actual grand final - harsh to put too much of that on him. I dont. But also, probably cant credit him with too much of the game plan, tactics etc as that was already in place. It also helps to have an A-grade list, which he wont have here.

But no argument here. Having his last year at GWS is a big, big tick and gives me pause to think maybe he might be ok. Plus, I absolutely loved the way that Sydney side played around that 2005 time. I would love for him to bring Brett Kirk along as an assistant, although maybe they both bring the same things.

 

[Thetrader15]

Those doubting Clarke's ability to be a head coach should take the opportunity to go down and watch training. I was very impressed with what he was doing.

Yes, the AFLW players are just so incredibly happy to just have the opportunity but you need a coach to channel that into a way to play as a team, not for themselves as you stated above. That's the reason we were such a force last season. The structures and discipline our team played with were so much higher than any other team. They were playing close to an AFL men's structure (better than our men could at times!). That takes coaching. Very good coaching.

I agree, we have a professional coach implementing structures etc against some non-professional coaches, not dissimilar to what Bassett did at Norwood a few years ago.

He seems like a nice bloke, and I have certainly changed my opinion of him over the last couple of years. The development of ROB is a credit to him - especially how you couldn't get and more different players to ROB and Clarke!

 

[LiquidCrow]

Nicks has been at one organisation for 8 of the last 9 years in a very senior role. We should assume that what he brings to the table is clearly reflected in that organisation now, after being there for so long, in numerous different coaching roles. If he hasnt shaped Port after being there for 8 years then why would we want him?

So its pretty reasonable to judge him at least in part by what Port have done over the past 8 years and what their positives and negatives are. I dont think we can blame him for China, or for recruiting Jack Watts or Motlop. But I think the type of football they play, their game plan, tactics, culture etc have all been heavily influenced by him. And we should expect him to take what he was doing there and apply it with us, only with more influence than he had at Port.

Thinking more about it, if hypothetically Kern walked from the Port job and they hired Campo I don't think too many of here would consider that to be a good move by them.

At least Nicks moved to GWS for more experience and has the ambition to lead a club, but it's hard to work out how much influence he had in only a single year.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I'm liking what I've seen of Nicks so far, but I'm not a fan of coaches coming out with statements like this. “seeking out the contest” and “inflicting damage on the opposition”.

It's so 'Hinkley', and just sets the scene for more constant ridicule.

I remember Hinkley saying they wanted the opposition "to s**t themselves" every time they went near the ball...how has that worked our for ya Ken?


“It's a game of errors. It's a game of turnovers,” Nicks said.

Well, no, it's not merely a game of errors and turnovers.

“When you look at a game, if we’re winning the turnover score, it shows that we're winning a lot of contests and that we were playing the game in the positions we want to play the game in.
“If an opposition makes a mistake in their back third, well it's more than likely we're going to punish them on that. Whereas, if we spend the whole time in our back 50 it's hard to score from that area.”......this has got 'no s**t Sherlock' dripping all over it.

I'm hoping there's a strategist coming in to assist.

He's definitely going to need a senior assistant/head of strategy as we just removed Campo but I think writing off Nicks tactically, based on what he said to the media is pretty ******* stupid. No offense.

 

[Coopers]

Glass half empty (you) -> Miserable as hell. Glass half full (me) -> looking forward to the possibilities. I know who i'd prefer to be.

I prefer to be the last one.

 

[Kenneth Tron]

I'm just curious how he ended up at the Panthers unless he was only at Unley for part of his high schooling. Unley High is Sturt territory, obviously.

Pretty sure his old man played for South

 

[NikkiNoo]

I agree, we have a professional coach implementing structures etc against some non-professional coaches, not dissimilar to what Bassett did at Norwood a few years ago.

He seems like a nice bloke, and I have certainly changed my opinion of him over the last couple of years. The development of ROB is a credit to him - especially how you couldn't get and more different players to ROB and Clarke!

A very good coach is one who can break down a skill and explain it to their athlete in a way to get that athlete able to perform the skill, even if the coach can't do that skill themselves. That's Clarke. The club is very open to having people come along and watch the AFLW training. As a "Legends" member there do one training session for those members to attend, but just have a chat with Phil Harper to arrange a time to watch training. They had lots of different groups/individuals throughout the season watching training.

 

[Thetrader15]

Thinking more about it, if hypothetically Kern walked from the Port job and they hired Campo I don't think too many of here would consider that to be a good move by them.

At least Nicks moved to GWS for more experience and has the ambition to lead a club, but it's hard to work out how much influence he had in only a single year.

Imagine BF if Kern did hire Campo!