That he's been able to do it without the boost on field wins provide is interesting. Usually coaches who get early buy in (Primus, Sanderson, Rhyce Shaw...) do it off a few start up wins and the substance isn't revealed until later.
What Nicks hasn't had to deal with yet is expectation. We aren't expected to win and aren't so a poor performance raises no questions.
What will the internal and external expectations be on us next season?
Both Pyke and Nicks are lucky, but in different respects. Pyke left with a better than normal sacked coach record because he inherited an incredibly unified group that had won an away final the previous year. Then after the players failed his perfect coaching he went on to totally destroy the group and their trust in the club over his final 2 seasons.
Nicks is the beneficiary of picking up a group from as low, if not the lowest, position in the modern era. A spoon and what looks like a bottom 5 finish washes away any questions as to whether he can make the right decisions get 22 players to win enough games to contend. As long as it looks like the group is happy within themselves anf with Admin, he gets a pass. But metrics do change and just because he's not currently being tested, as Pyke originally wasn't, he will be if we're generating just as few wins next year.
I've had 3 legitimate pieces of inside info from the club. First was regarding Trigg and those sanctions, second was Mrouch last extension (30 minutes prior to announcement, so from a drone from Sector 7G) and the 3rd, a few weeks ago, is that Nicks spends A LOT of time up and around the admin part of the club. He's definitely a relationships person, but at some point, you're going to be judged on wins and losses.