Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach (Part 3) - Re-Signed to 2027...

[spenze]

Yes but what about those injuries?

and a new strain of Covid, we could be the new Hindley Street

 

[cleanhands]

Yes but what about those injuries?

We have a new fitness coach we need time to adjust

 

[skittlebrew]

Geez you think another coach would have been unable to win a quarter


Ps and the cattle is there to at least get a quarter win

Lol I'm not saying you're completely wrong mate and yeah one quarter isn't a high watermark. I think with Rankine we win one or more. Really hoping Curtin, Rachele or Draper can develope into something special in the middle because we need quality in there and attracting an elite mid is very difficult.

Look have a shit ruck or a dodgey second tall up forward or down back. Have a makeshift forwardline or backline. But don't have a weak midfield, you can't get anywhere with a weak midfield.

 

[cleanhands]

Lol I'm not saying you're completely wrong mate and yeah one quarter isn't a high watermark. I think with Rankine we win one or more. Really hoping Curtin, Rachele or Draper can develope into something special in the middle because we need quality in there and attracting an elite mid is very difficult.

It looks like Rachele is the man by Bigmans reports

 

[skittlebrew]

It looks like Rachele is the man by Bigmans reports

Probably our best bet. Realistically mids just aren't 197cm, so the odds are against Curtin but **** I hope he pulls it off. Too early to tell for Draper but is clearly a ways off right now.

 

[Southerntakeover]

If we’re 12 zip they’ll be speculating over him only getting 1 year.

My preference was to hold off until around a dozen games in. If we’re heading for finals then wear the 1 year then. If ye comes out doubling down on his defensive stupidity, we’ll have blown a years wages unnecessarily.

There's nothing at all that can happen in the regular season that could alter the assessment at all though.

This guy turned top spot into the worst finals of all time. How does regular season results address that concern?

 

[Bay62]

Probably our best bet. Realistically mids just aren't 197cm, so the odds are against Curtin but **** I hope he pulls it off. Too early to tell for Draper but is clearly a ways off right now.

I think Bont is that size

 

[Peter Doherty]

There's nothing at all that can happen in the regular season that could alter the assessment at all though.

This guy turned top spot into the worst finals of all time. How does regular season results address that concern?

It doesn't.

Let's be real, in that scenario where we are 12-0 and we sign him, we ain't signing him for 1 year.

 

[George CantStandYa]

There's nothing at all that can happen in the regular season that could alter the assessment at all though.

This guy turned top spot into the worst finals of all time. How does regular season results address that concern?

If we are 2-8, they wait until the end of the year to re-sign him though to see if he recovers

 

[Southerntakeover]

I hadn’t thought of that.. but you’re right. Eight years, no other coach has clocked that long.

We didn’t even put with Saint Neil for that long.

It's actually kind of jarring.

Blight in all his glory was three years.

Nicks will have more than twice that without a single finals win.

 

[AFC979810]

There's nothing at all that can happen in the regular season that could alter the assessment at all though.

This guy turned top spot into the worst finals of all time. How does regular season results address that concern?

It's a pretty small sample size though. It's two finals games surrounded by a national scandal that resulted in our best player sitting on the sideline.

So many dramatic posts on here, when really the extension isnt a big deal. We flame out and it all falls apart in 2026 - we can fire Nicks without too much of a hit to our soft cap in 2027.

Noble went 1-5 in his first 3 finals tilts (5 home games, 1 neutral site).

 

[AFC979810]

Geez you think another coach would have been unable to win a quarter


Ps and the cattle is there to at least get a quarter win

You lot are obsessed with us not winning a quarter in the finals. It's a weird thing to keep bringing up and really has no relevance to anything. We lost 3 of the quarters to Collingwood by 2, 4 and 5 points.

Would you have felt better if we won 2 quarters against Collingwood? Would you have more faith in Nicks we won the first quarter against Collingwood but still lost the game by the same margin? Our worst quarter was the 3rd quarter against Collingwood where we lost by 13 points.

We were off in the finals and lost. The reigning premiers had 3 games in 2025 where they didn't win a quarter (including one final).

 

[AFC979810]

Our first four games in 2026 are against McRae, Beveridge, C Scott & Longmuir.
He's 23%, 6 wins from 26 games against these four.

He could be under pressure early.

Just looking at our draw for the beginning of the season.

The AFL are such cowards. Deliberately putting us against Collingwood when Rankine is suspended. Imagine the build up, attention and viewership the AFL would have if they put it round 2 on Friday night.

 

[GreyCrow]

Just looking at our draw for the beginning of the season.

The AFL are such cowards. Deliberately putting us against Collingwood when Rankine is suspended. Imagine the build up, attention and viewership the AFL would have if they put it round 2 on Friday night.

I disagree. Its the best thing they can do for all parties

Just play football and leave that confected rubbish to McGuire, Barrett and Hutchinson

 

[crows dude]

I think Bont is that size

192 Bont
195 Cripps

 

[AFC979810]

I disagree. Its the best thing they can do for all parties

Just play football and leave that confected rubbish to McGuire, Barrett and Hutchinson

Its not the best thing they can do.

The best thing to do is to make it into something that promotes the game. Its going to happen regardless - you don't think its going to be a huge issue in Rd 20 at Adelaide Oval?

 

[cleanhands]

You lot are obsessed with us not winning a quarter in the finals. It's a weird thing to keep bringing up and really has no relevance to anything. We lost 3 of the quarters to Collingwood by 2, 4 and 5 points.

Would you have felt better if we won 2 quarters against Collingwood? Would you have more faith in Nicks we won the first quarter against Collingwood but still lost the game by the same margin? Our worst quarter was the 3rd quarter against Collingwood where we lost by 13 points.

We were off in the finals and lost. The reigning premiers had 3 games in 2025 where they didn't win a quarter (including one final).

Just stating a fact to our poster friend how p155 poor we were

 

[AFC979810]

Probably our best bet. Realistically mids just aren't 197cm, so the odds are against Curtin but **** I hope he pulls it off. Too early to tell for Draper but is clearly a ways off right now.

Only one comparable is Nash from Hawthorn.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

It's a pretty small sample size though. It's two finals games surrounded by a national scandal that resulted in our best player sitting on the sideline.

So many dramatic posts on here, when really the extension isnt a big deal. We flame out and it all falls apart in 2026 - we can fire Nicks without too much of a hit to our soft cap in 2027.

Noble went 1-5 in his first 3 finals tilts (5 home games, 1 neutral site).

Very logical POV .....but do you mean Fagan not Noble

Do you remember the commentary around Fagan .....he was poor strategically ....he couldn't win at the MCG

Reality is, there'll always be armchair critics ....it's much easier to be negative on life

Success is about how you deal with failure .....without people preaching doom & gloom B4 even the serious PS stuff starts .....let's see how Nicks responds to last year

Of course, we won't really have that answer until we play Finals again

 

[GreyCrow]

Its not the best thing they can do.

The best thing to do is to make it into something that promotes the game. Its going to happen regardless - you don't think its going to be a huge issue in Rd 20 at Adelaide Oval?

Round 20 is a lot different to round 1

But hey let people bring their racism to the fore again

 

[Crow till I die]

Probably our best bet. Realistically mids just aren't 197cm, so the odds are against Curtin but **** I hope he pulls it off. Too early to tell for Draper but is clearly a ways off right now.

Where Dan Curtin will have a big point of difference as a midfielder is at the coalface where he will have the strength to shrug tackles and get the ball moving. He also makes perfect sense as when others are getting first hand on ball and he is the next in the chain, his footskills are sublime for a big guy. Don't forget also, his junior foott before his growth spurt was as a mid so he knows what its about.

In my eye, if he can transition from the wing to centre square mid, he could be the biggest upside to our midfield going forward

 

[George CantStandYa]

You lot are obsessed with us not winning a quarter in the finals. It's a weird thing to keep bringing up and really has no relevance to anything. We lost 3 of the quarters to Collingwood by 2, 4 and 5 points.

Would you have felt better if we won 2 quarters against Collingwood? Would you have more faith in Nicks we won the first quarter against Collingwood but still lost the game by the same margin? Our worst quarter was the 3rd quarter against Collingwood where we lost by 13 points.

We were off in the finals and lost. The reigning premiers had 3 games in 2025 where they didn't win a quarter (including one final).

Yeah, not winning a quarter isn’t an indication of how poor we played in our 2 home finals after finishing minor premier. We were just “off”. Nothing wrong with the coaching.

Can you name another team that failed to win a quarter in 2 finals and went out in straight sets? Or are we the only “off” team?

 

[skittlebrew]

I think Bont is that size

Think Bont is 195cm, for arguments sake he is the same as Curtin. Then who else is that height? Cripps? Then who? The point is not many at all. *edit make this post before seeing them listed above lol

Although it is the Wembanyama era, it's not unreasonable that 197cm is the new 195cm.

 

[skittlebrew]

Where Dan Curtin will have a big point of difference as a midfielder is at the coalface where he will have the strength to shrug tackles and get the ball moving. He also makes perfect sense as when others are getting first hand on ball and he is the next in the chain, his footskills are sublime for a big guy. Don't forget also, his junior foott before his growth spurt was as a mid so he knows what its about.

In my eye, if he can transition from the wing to centre square mid, he could be the biggest upside to our midfield going forward

I think he can be too and if there is only a one percent chance he can be an elite mid we give Curtin every chance to be that guy. Late growth spurt talls are often the best imo. Even if being a midfielder doesn't eventuate it's still a great position to develop in.

 

[Scorpus]

So far no one has been able to explain why the extension is good if we have to sack him at the end of 2026

Or why the extension is necessary at all