Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach

[Tarasque36]

Kelly, Mackay come on down

Amen brother!!

On moto g(9) play using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Damp Squarie]

In saying that, if Clarkson became available early, you'd be crazy not to be all over that. Although I doubt we'd be able to attract someone of his calibre.

...and I doubt we’d pay him what he would want.

 

[BunjiMac]

...and I doubt we’d pay him what he would want.

If Clarkson was available and wanted to come, we should pay him whatever he wants

 

[Damp Squarie]

If Clarkson was available and wanted to come, we should pay him whatever he wants

I’m with you but Adelaide have always paid Unders it seems; I’d suggest the same would apply to Coaches.

 

[WetCrow1991]

I don't really know the inner workings of the club, the relationships and the individual qualities of its employees. All I know is the product they put out is s**t and has been for more seasons than not over the last decade or so. I haven't seen anything to suggest any improvement in that area, fluke round 1 wins and lucky 1 point wins against top sides, while enjoyable, are not reflective of an improvement trend.

 

[1970crow]

I don't really know the inner workings of the club, the relationships and the individual qualities of its employees. All I know is the product they put out is sh*t and has been for more seasons than not over the last decade or so. I haven't seen anything to suggest any improvement in that area, fluke round 1 wins and lucky 1 point wins against top sides, while enjoyable, are not reflective of an improvement trend.

Geelong's first few weeks were pretty poor and Melbourne have failed to beat more bottom 4 sizes than top 4 sides. I think those wins are being overated, still wins though. When will address the 2 glaring deficiencies, hell fix 1 and the other might be fixed as well. Firstly, our midfield groups inability to adequately apply pressure to lost clearances and to generate quality disposal from their wins. It's been like this since Danger's time with us. Fix that and other dominos might fall. But the obvious next issue is lack of pressure against turnovers in our 50. Puts the mids under pressure and then the defensive group. But current so,ution is to go taller because our mids need deep contests to kick to because they can't be trusted to hit up leading targets.

Nice loop you've created Nicksy. And I love that you're now sticking it to the defensive group for allowing small forwards to get the better of the defenders. You need to look upfield you nimrod, the defenders are not the problem and do not need fixing at this moment. They're playing with one arm tied behind their backs and you're the bloke tieing the knots.

 

[Sanders]

Oh I do have an argument for it, but frankly Sanders, it is more that I have better things to do with my time justify any argument that I have to you.

Lol. Is it a full moon

 

[BrissyCrow]

This I reckon is spot on plus Nicks philosophies aligned with existent club philosophies, so he ticked both boxes. I reckon the relationship thing is way overblown. It's great in a line coach as it can smooth out the ripples created by the coach th feels the most heat for not delivering what's promised or expected. But nothing becomes more toxic than the person you thought was your mate turning around and teeing off on you because they're now under immense pressure themselves.

No doubt everything was great when the wicked witch of the west was replaced with Nicks riding in and showing recruits where his office is when they want to talk about footy and life and stuff and everyone got a pass for a covid spoon. In fact, after 0-13 and winning 3 from the last 4, you would argue a pass and everything is on track. But now we're 2 wins from our last 13 games playing a static group, the most exoeruenced 22 available, no appetite to look at our midfield system and having only given debut cameos.

The question that any reasonable observer would ask is thst given our selection philosophy strongly suggests our 22 will be barely different in round 1 next year, how would we not be looking at a similar or worse result? Even if the pressure isn't yet coming from above, Nicks would know it's inevitable and if he can't or won't drop senior players or change their roles, he needs to get more out of them. And we don't have a single one of our undroppable 50+ game players that will improve into next year.

Tex - brilliant first few games, then disappeared for second halves then a full game, rested, returned better again, injured, struggled in last half again. Will need more resting next year.
Sloane - getting more and more cooked, didn't return any better from preseason than he finished 2020. Too many years playing through injury.
Mackay - just trash, year in, year out
Seed - contract year, doubtful this is backed up, I'd give him 1 only and risk losing him
Brown - average couple of years not helped by injury, doubt he'll return to full ability. See Sloane.
Talia - so cooked, see Sloane.
ROB - if he's going to play banged up and refuse to rest and thrive on continuity and huge workload, we won't see his best again.
Laird - will be the same
Keays - see Laird
Crouch - won't be here
Lynch - bounced back well on the weekend, but that's the minimum required, see how he goes over the coming rounds. It's a 22 game season.
Murphy - has hit his ceiling
Kelly - see Murphy

Unless we see some of these guys in the 2s next year, we've pretty much set our ceiling at bottom 3-4 next year.

For me Nicks came into the club and was ideal to start to change The culture around the club. By this I mean we were losing players and the culture towards how we treated them needed to be improved. Now we see a group of players that appear to be comfortable with their environment. Playing games around making announcements such as debut games. So its a nice work place. But then you take a look at the players we have and their development. Lets look at Scholl. Last year he improved his performance and developed over the year. Should have won Rising star earlier and finally got it in the last game. Then he continued to improve and won another rising star but since then his development hasn't improved. Its gone backwards. Ned really hasnt developed. In fact besides Schoenberg and Butts none of our youngsters have shown stead growth. As far as I am concerned I believe we are playing worse footy today than we were late last year or earlier this year. We haven't moved forward.

I think Nicks has had a positive impact on the club but not on how our players are developing which in-turn reflects on how the team is developing....going backwards. I believe we now need to look at whether we want to continue to be a nice comfy place to play footy at, or do we need a more experienced coach who will command respect and demand higher standards. It's no wonder that Nicks continues to play MacKay because he cant depend on any up and coming youngster. I was hoping for growth out of Rowe, Pedlar, Berry, Ned & Jones (although in all fairness Jones has improved but not to the level that you would expect from our first draft pick in 2018). Then there are players like McAdam, Murphy, Davis, Himmelberg, McAsey, McPherson....all shown some promise then its all stopped.

A more experienced coach would be more demanding including demanding more from his players, coaches and the entire footy department....and that includes the selection committee, player development. Picking MacKay is a joke. Picking Sloane who is injured is a joke. We really need to get real at this club and despite the changes made in the past two years we are still years away from playing a consistent, reliable winningable culture.

 

[Albert Bruce]

For me Nicks came into the club and was ideal to start to change The culture around the club. By this I mean we were losing players and the culture towards how we treated them needed to be improved. Now we see a group of players that appear to be comfortable with their environment. Playing games around making announcements such as debut games. So its a nice work place. But then you take a look at the players we have and their development. Lets look at Scholl. Last year he improved his performance and developed over the year. Should have won Rising star earlier and finally got it in the last game. Then he continued to improve and won another rising star but since then his development hasn't improved. Its gone backwards. Ned really hasnt developed. In fact besides Schoenberg and Butts none of our youngsters have shown stead growth. As far as I am concerned I believe we are playing worse footy today than we were late last year or earlier this year. We haven't moved forward.

I think Nicks has had a positive impact on the club but not on how our players are developing which in-turn reflects on how the team is developing....going backwards. I believe we now need to look at whether we want to continue to be a nice comfy place to play footy at, or do we need a more experienced coach who will command respect and demand higher standards. It's no wonder that Nicks continues to play MacKay because he cant depend on any up and coming youngster. I was hoping for growth out of Rowe, Pedlar, Berry, Ned & Jones (although in all fairness Jones has improved but not to the level that you would expect from our first draft pick in 2018). Then there are players like McAdam, Murphy, Davis, Himmelberg, McAsey, McPherson....all shown some promise then its all stopped.

A more experienced coach would be more demanding including demanding more from his players, coaches and the entire footy department....and that includes the selection committee, player development. Picking MacKay is a joke. Picking Sloane who is injured is a joke. We really need to get real at this club and despite the changes made in the past two years we are still years away from playing a consistent, reliable winningable culture.

To move from where we are at will require a lot more leadership capacity in the place. The physical surroundings have to be changed so the club has a genuine home that reflects the heart of the club. When that occurs then we will begin to see real improvement. The current coaching group are showing a high level of commitment - that needs to be matched by an improvement in the way we draft. The SANFL team is completely rudderless and reflects very poorly on the current culture of the club. Until they sort that out we will continue look like a rabble. Keep putting games into people that are not good enough will guarantee we will stay at the bottom for a long time. I will be shocked if we keep Crouch, he will be happy to be in an auction for his services as there is little at the club to hold onto at the moment. How we could re-contract McAdam is completely beyond my level of intelligence. All I see is a guy who picks and chooses and has learnt that he will get an ice cream once or twice a game if he sits forward of the ball. Drafting people like Rowe when they don't have the talent is cruel and is evidence of a major issue with a lack of knowledge in the recruiting staff. I look forward to supporting the club through this, we need to change our physical surroundings and then we can start to talk about a genuine future for what has been a highly successful club but right now we are in the middle of our darkest days.I would be desperately seeking to get more experienced and successful leaders to support our coaching group in creating on field success. Losing people like Betts just makes it more difficult - you want your football club to have a soul - he is in the last part of his career but what a great opportunity the club had to redefine the way forward by celebrating and encouraging leadership through an Indigenous legend of the game by continuing with him at the club. The club doesn't seem to have the leadership capacity at the moment to get this - without a soul you have nothing!!

 

[MRB37]

To move from where we are at will require a lot more leadership capacity in the place. The physical surroundings have to be changed so the club has a genuine home that reflects the heart of the club. When that occurs then we will begin to see real improvement. The current coaching group are showing a high level of commitment - that needs to be matched by an improvement in the way we draft. The SANFL team is completely rudderless and reflects very poorly on the current culture of the club. Until they sort that out we will continue look like a rabble. Keep putting games into people that are not good enough will guarantee we will stay at the bottom for a long time. I will be shocked if we keep Crouch, he will be happy to be in an auction for his services as there is little at the club to hold onto at the moment. How we could re-contract McAdam is completely beyond my level of intelligence. All I see is a guy who picks and chooses and has learnt that he will get an ice cream once or twice a game if he sits forward of the ball. Drafting people like Rowe when they don't have the talent is cruel and is evidence of a major issue with a lack of knowledge in the recruiting staff. I look forward to supporting the club through this, we need to change our physical surroundings and then we can start to talk about a genuine future for what has been a highly successful club but right now we are in the middle of our darkest days.I would be desperately seeking to get more experienced and successful leaders to support our coaching group in creating on field success. Losing people like Betts just makes it more difficult - you want your football club to have a soul - he is in the last part of his career but what a great opportunity the club had to redefine the way forward by celebrating and encouraging leadership through an Indigenous legend of the game by continuing with him at the club. The club doesn't seem to have the leadership capacity at the moment to get this - without a soul you have nothing!!

Betts wasn't forced out the door, he chose to return to Melbourne like he always planned on doing. Having twins just accelerated it a year or two.

 

[BunjiMac]

If we win the wooden spoon this year, should Nick's survive?

Id accept a wooden spoon depending on the potential and progress.weve shown. In a year when Nick's favoured the mature senior players and ends up with the spoon, I'm not so forgiving.

So for me, if we get the spoon, Nick's should go.

What do others say?

 

[1970crow]

Betts wasn't forced out the door, he chose to return to Melbourne like he always planned on doing. Having twins just accelerated it a year or two.

Wasn't he told he was no longer an automatic selection though? That's how you force entitled players out the door.

 

[MRB37]

Wasn't he told he was no longer an automatic selection though? That's how you force entitled players out the door.

He was gonna leave regardless of that, that just let him play the sympathy card a bit more. I don't fault him for it, he got another year or two out of his body, bit more money in the bank and got back to Melbourne, worked out well for him.

 

[Interloperer]

If Adelaide lose all their remaining games then they will finish last, barring multiple record-breaking losses from Collingwood.

What is worse?

2020, a team with no gameplan, poor cohesion scraping together a few wins for morale at the end of the year but still finishing last.

Or 2021, a team that started well, playing most of the year with confidence, with the whole squad seemingly fully bought in to the coach's plan and vision. And with the best full forward in the competition for good measure... And still finishing last.

 

[BunjiMac]

If Adelaide lose all their remaining games then they will finish last, barring multiple record-breaking losses from Collingwood.

What is worse?

2020, a team with no gameplan, poor cohesion scraping together a few wins for morale at the end of the year but still finishing last.

Or 2021, a team that started well, playing most of the year with confidence, with the whole squad seemingly fully bought in to the coach's plan and vision. And with the best full forward in the competition for good measure... And still finishing last.

2021 is far worse.

That shows we are laying all the wrong bets.

If we think those things are true AND we finish last, then we are completely in the wrong direction.

 

[jackster83]

If we win the wooden spoon this year, should Nick's survive?

Id accept a wooden spoon depending on the potential and progress.weve shown. In a year when Nick's favoured the mature senior players and ends up with the spoon, I'm not so forgiving.

So for me, if we get the spoon, Nick's should go.

What do others say?

Ricciuto should go first.

 

[MRB37]

Ricciuto should go first.

Firing Nicks just guarantees you get the same results. Issue Carlton are finding out now. Keep changing coaches while the admin skates through and the same results keep coming.

 

[BunjiMac]

Firing Nicks just guarantees you get the same results. Issue Carlton are finding out now. Keep changing coaches while the admin skates through and the same results keep coming.

I don't think it does.

But agree that the admin need to answer for a lot

 

[Interloperer]

2021 is far worse.

That shows we are laying all the wrong bets.

If we think those things are true AND we finish last, then we are completely in the wrong direction.

I'm inclined to agree if nothing improves.

 

[Scorpus]

If we win the wooden spoon this year, should Nick's survive?

Id accept a wooden spoon depending on the potential and progress.weve shown. In a year when Nick's favoured the mature senior players and ends up with the spoon, I'm not so forgiving.

So for me, if we get the spoon, Nick's should go.

What do others say?

It depends if we are tanking or not.

Finishing last is good for us at the draft. If i wanted to bring in elite talent, I'd probably do stuff that Nicks has done like play Mackay for way too many games and put an injured Lynch as the sub.

But have we actually been tanking?

 

[Mr_Moogle]

It depends if we are tanking or not.

Finishing last is good for us at the draft. If i wanted to bring in elite talent, I'd probably do stuff that Nicks has done like play Mackay for way too many games and put an injured Lynch as the sub.

But have we actually been tanking?

No. Nicks is legitimately incompetent. Playing Mackay is a sure fire way to finish lower but so is playing the kids and only one of those two things expedites our rebuild.

 

[1970crow]

If Adelaide lose all their remaining games then they will finish last, barring multiple record-breaking losses from Collingwood.

What is worse?

2020, a team with no gameplan, poor cohesion scraping together a few wins for morale at the end of the year but still finishing last.

Or 2021, a team that started well, playing most of the year with confidence, with the whole squad seemingly fully bought in to the coach's plan and vision. And with the best full forward in the competition for good measure... And still finishing last.

Don't forget maximum continuity. Played nearly or the least amount of players.

 

[1970crow]

It depends if we are tanking or not.

Finishing last is good for us at the draft. If i wanted to bring in elite talent, I'd probably do stuff that Nicks has done like play Mackay for way too many games and put an injured Lynch as the sub.

But have we actually been tanking?

no we haven't.

 

[1970crow]

Firing Nicks just guarantees you get the same results. Issue Carlton are finding out now. Keep changing coaches while the admin skates through and the same results keep coming.

but Nicks was recruited by the failed admin you speak of.

 

[Golumless]

If we win the wooden spoon this year, should Nick's survive?

Id accept a wooden spoon depending on the potential and progress.weve shown. In a year when Nick's favoured the mature senior players and ends up with the spoon, I'm not so forgiving.

So for me, if we get the spoon, Nick's should go.

What do others say?

Yeah, Nicks should survive, especially how much of an anomaly a 5 win spoon season is, seeing it's only been done once in the last 20 years, with 2017 Brisbane.

It's firmly at the point you just shrug your shoulders at being unlucky if it occurs.