Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

Is Matthew Nicks the right coach for Adelaide's rebuild?

  • Firmly yes (I love what I'm seeing)

  • Leaning yes

  • Can't decide either way

  • Leaning no (but don't sack him yet)

  • Firmly no (he should be sacked)


Results are only viewable after voting.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Aug 31, 2007
14,325
14,481
Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Teams collectively end up adopting the personality of their coach.

Think about that, carefully. It’s true in almost all cases.

Teams with freakish coaches tend to do freakish things (think Crows under Blight). Teams with an a-hole for a coach tend to play like arseholes (think Port under Chocco).

Teams with pragmatic, clear, logical thinkers tend to play that way (think Brisbane under Matthews, think Geelong under C Scott).

Teams with unsociable taggers as coaches tend to play unsociable football (think Hawthorn under Clarkson).

Teams with a dour, defensive battler for a coach tend to play that way (think West Coast under Malthouse).

The general mechanics of the gameplan might change from year to year, but the overarching personality trait of the collective reflects the coach. Richmond play like Hardwick. They do a lot of off-the-ball stuff that gets under their opponents’ skin. So do GWS. Not every coach concentrates on that stuff, but Hardwick and Cameron do.

There’s many ways to skin a cat.

So what personality does Nicks have?
Hopefully many and instinctive
 
May 17, 2009
32,469
51,224
Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Glenelg
This is an interesting philosophical point. I have a theory that nations often take on the traits of their leaders in a similar way.

Compare the beige blandness of Australian society in the Howard-Rudd-Gillard-Morrison eras compared to the more swashbuckling irreverent Hawke era.

On Nicks though, it all seems a bit Sando to me.
Sando was very wishy-washy for mine and usually sprouted excuses after losses. He completely lacked the hard edge that Nicks seems to have.

Early days of course, so we just have to wait and see.
 
May 16, 2015
12,787
16,944
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
WWTFC,Chelsea,Glasgow Celtic,Lech Poznan
Sando was very wishy-washy for mine and usually sprouted excuses after losses. He completely lacked the hard edge that Nicks seems to have.

Early days of course, so we just have to wait and see.
Do you know who our assistant coaches were in 2012. How we made 2nd in minor round with Sando is beyond belief. He must have had a good back up team. Some of the players had career best seasons.
 
Jan 6, 2018
10,660
12,193
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Norwood
Bailey basically coached us. After he died and wasn’t replaced Sando didn’t cope
You mean after the AFL made him a scapegoat and gave him a 12 month ban over alleged tanking at Melbourne .. that didn't really happen, or did it ..?

FFS, Adelaide were punished for a Melbourne cluster *. The AFL chose to go after Bailey, because they were frightened Melbourne would lose their poker machine licences if they went after Cameron Schwab.

Melbourne were barely financial at the time, and the AFL were shitting themselves they'd have to start pouring money back into the club if they lost their poker machine licences.

Fu*k Melbourne. Fu*k the AFL
 
May 17, 2009
32,469
51,224
Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Glenelg
Do you know who our assistant coaches were in 2012. How we made 2nd in minor round with Sando is beyond belief. He must have had a good back up team. Some of the players had career best seasons.
If I remember correctly we had Milburn, Clarke, Campo, Bailey and Bickley next to Sando in 2012. It was a spike based on players going from ultra-complicated gameplan from Craig to a simple "crash in and boot it forward" style that worked perfectly cause we had an elite contested mark in the forward line in Tippett. There was nothing behind Sando once that got figured out though.
 
May 16, 2015
12,787
16,944
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
WWTFC,Chelsea,Glasgow Celtic,Lech Poznan
If I remember correctly we had Milburn, Clarke, Campo, Bailey and Bickley next to Sando in 2012. It was a spike based on players going from ultra-complicated gameplan from Craig to a simple "crash in and boot it forward" style that worked perfectly cause we had an elite contested mark in the forward line in Tippett. There was nothing behind Sando once that got figured out though.
That's how I remember it. Bailey was a big loss.
 

mattymac

Why no midfield crowz?
10k Posts
Jul 9, 2009
18,167
32,188
Yes
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
No
Do you know who our assistant coaches were in 2012. How we made 2nd in minor round with Sando is beyond belief. He must have had a good back up team. Some of the players had career best seasons.
Defense - Milburn
Midfield - Camporeale
Forwards - Bickley

A pretty mediocre crew. The key that year was that Walker announced himself. Came 4th in the Coleman with 60+ goals and looked like becoming a generational talent.

With Tippet kicking 40 odd they became the twin towers.

Then Sydney poached Tippet and Walker did his ACL and the wheels fell off completely.

In 2013 our forward line became a sad mess of Tom Lynch, a completely raw Josh Jenkins, Andy Otten, Richard Douglas, Jason Porplyzia, Sam Kerridge and Jared Petrenko.

s**t that year was bad. From 2nd in the minor round in 2012 to 11th in 2013.

But at least we got pick 8 and picked up Patrick Cripps in the draft.

Oh wait, no we didn't that's when Chapman and Trigg lost all our draft picks for salary cheating and draft tampering.
 
Last edited:

Carmo

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 15, 2011
6,522
5,860
SA
AFL Club
Adelaide
If I remember correctly we had Milburn, Clarke, Campo, Bailey and Bickley next to Sando in 2012. It was a spike based on players going from ultra-complicated gameplan from Craig to a simple "crash in and boot it forward" style that worked perfectly cause we had an elite contested mark in the forward line in Tippett. There was nothing behind Sando once that got figured out though.
How about it was none of this and in fact everything was pretty much kept the same except we went from being the lowest rotating club in the comp to near the highest and got more run thru the midfield as a result.

An exaggeration a bit to make a point as I do agree the gameplan was simplified but you can see the point I was trying to make right, the rotations was the massive factor.

I have often wondered if Binuk the data analysis man could model up how much better we might have gone under craig if we had adopted a competition average rotations and also a competition leading rotation rate. I also wonder if that was actually what our fade out was against west coast rather than any possible drug assisted performance, did they simply have a few more rotations?
 
May 29, 2011
24,933
38,735
SA
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Sturt
If I remember correctly we had Milburn, Clarke, Campo, Bailey and Bickley next to Sando in 2012. It was a spike based on players going from ultra-complicated gameplan from Craig to a simple "crash in and boot it forward" style that worked perfectly cause we had an elite contested mark in the forward line in Tippett. There was nothing behind Sando once that got figured out though.
I agree with you on Sando being one dimensional. He wasn't a very good coach. I still think he deserves some credit for 2012 though. That was a pretty enjoyable season to watch as a fan. If it wasn't for that horrendous umpiring in the prelim, we make the GF.
 
Sep 19, 2007
11,102
13,088
The Pub
AFL Club
Adelaide
I agree with you on Sando being one dimensional. He wasn't a very good coach. I still think he deserves some credit for 2012 though. That was a pretty enjoyable season to watch as a fan. If it wasn't for that horrendous umpiring in the prelim, we make the GF.

He was a one trick pony as coach, the perfect storm even, he promised a spike and that's what he got. Sadly a spike goes up sharply and then down sharply very quickly.

His game plan was simplistic and he had no ability to progress it, the Swans had us worked out in the QF and clubs simply had to copy what they did and we struggled.
 

Bay62

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 28, 2014
7,892
13,922
AFL Club
Adelaide
Dean Baily - Strategy and innovation coach
Then in 2013 he was banned for 16 games

I still remember standing in the Glenelg club rooms talking to Dean Bailey as he finished at the Bay and was off to Queensland to start his coaching career

Very nice bloke, happy to chat and you could see he had the brains to go far

Such a tragedy
 
Aug 9, 2019
37,994
64,900
Victorian Central Highlands
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Panthers, GWV Rebels, Central Augusta


During his initial years at the Power, Houston worked under then assistant coach Matthew Nicks, who last month was appointed the head role at Adelaide, replacing Don Pyke.
He said the new Crows mentor would be an excellent fit at West Lakes.
“I remember he was really switched on, energetic, he was really good at building strong connections with the players and has really good knowledge of the game. So, I think he’ll be a great coach, just unfortunately it’s for Adelaide,” Houston joked.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back