Matthew Nick’s remaining games for 2024 will be his most important writes Graham Cornes

He may not realise it, but these last matches of the year are vital to Matthew Nicks’s future, writes Graham Cornes.

Matthew Nicks may not realise it but the last four matches of this season may be the most important of his young coaching career. Regardless of the result in Geelong, there must be a clear blueprint for the future. There must be optimism.

Crows fans have suffered now for the past seven years. Patience is running thin.

The emotional fatigue generated by the inconsistencies, the highs and the lows of a 24-round season is taking its toll. The euphoria of beating Essendon in Melbourne was swiftly crushed last weekend when they capitulated to a young Hawthorn team. Those fans deserve better. Despite the disappointments of this season, nearly 42,000 attended last week’s match against the Hawks. That’s loyalty. Sure, not all stayed to the end but they had every right to walk out in disgust. It was the worst performance of the year – one of those results that can accelerate a coach’s demise. We’ve all had them – even the greats. Yes, even the greats get sacked.

Matthew Nicks, Senior Coach of the Crows remaining games for season 2024 will be some of his most important says Graham Cornes. Photo: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

It is true that Matthew Nicks inherited a team that was at its lowest point.

The Adelaide Football Club, so strong and so respected had succumbed to the constant attacks and waves of criticism. Some of it was warranted but much had been exaggerated by sections of a muck-raking media. Throw in the vitriol and misinformation from the unaccountable keyboard cowards on social media and it was inevitable that there would be victims.

Some had fallen on their sword and left. Others had been terminated. However the slate had been wiped clean, the club had started from ground zero and Matthew Nicks had been the most important foundation stone of the rebuild.

The chairman is important, the chief executive is important but they don’t have the visibility of the coach. For it is the team that impacts most the emotions of the fans; and it is the coach who impacts most the performance of the team.

Expectations in Nick’s early years were low. Nobody talked about making the finals. In fact, no one really talked about making finals again until last year. Then one colossal goal-umpiring error was blamed for another September without finals action.

It was easy to blame the goal umpire but that was the easy way out. Good teams put it beyond unfavourable umpiring decisions. Good teams have clear goals and high expectations.

Hawthorn’s new coach, Sam Mitchell may very well be 2024’s coach of the year even though at the start of this weekend the Hawks had not made it back into the eight.

However Mitchell has made it quite clear that the only acceptable outcome for his team is to work its way back into the top four. It’s the best position from which to challenge for another premiership. He coaches a team that finished in 16th place on the ladder last season.

Hawthorn and Fremantle (who finished 14th) are the teams that have shown the greatest improvement this season and have leap-frogged Adelaide in terms of development.

At the start of this round the Dockers were in third position and should stay there. Hawthorn, with just an ounce of luck might make it into the eight as well. Crows fans have every right to ask “Why not us?” Why are we languishing back in 15th position. The answer is simple. It’s all about the midfield. And it’s all about player development.

Expectations in Nick’s early years were low, but a clear blueprint for the future is needed. Photo: Sarah Reed.

The Hawthorn midfield that destroyed Adelaide last week and has been the league’s best in the last ten weeks, consisted of Will Day, a South Australian that the Crows overlooked in the 2019 draft, Jai Newcombe who was a mid-season draft from 2021, Connor Nash an Irishman and James Worpel a third-round selection from 2017. Other than Day, none stood out as elite talent, but they have become a powerful midfield unit.

Fremantle’s midfield is loaded with top-end talent. They have used the draft well.

Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong and Hayden Young were all early first round draft picks in 2019.

But there is also the veteran champion, Nat Fyfe who wasn’t selected until pick 20 in the 2009 draft. Serong and Young were still available when the Crows had their pick.

So was Fyfe, but no criticism of that because all the other clubs passed on him as well.

The Crows selected Daniel Talia with pick 13, a good 200 game player with leadership potential, but not Nat Fyfe. If it makes the Crows fans feel better, Port selected John Butcher, Andrew Moore and Jasper Pittard before Fyfe went to Fremantle.

It is the Crows midfield that needs to be bolstered. The Crows midfielder that has improved this year has been Jake Soligo. His numbers are much better and he does win the hard ball but he doesn’t impact the scoreboard often enough. Jordan Dawson is an elite midfielder but isn’t always in there. Izak Rankine too, is elite but is needed in the forward line as much as in the midfield. Other youngsters, Taylor, Berry, Rachelle and Bond have been rotated through the centre, but none of the combinations have looked threatening or permanent.

Rory Laird is still the best performed Crows midfielder and Matthew Crouch has earned a recall but are they really the future of the Crows midfield?

Matthew Nicks will have his handful with the remaining sides left to face. Photo: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

These last matches of the year are vital to Matthew Nicks’s future.

His team needs to recover from the embarrassment of last week. Nor have the fans forgotten that they lost to Richmond earlier in the year. Richmond? A team that has won only two games this year and is on the bottom of the ladder. That’s why the fans are restless.

History can be a good indicator. Nothing condemns a coach in a struggling team more than an embarrassing loss. These are the matches that determine your fate. It’s not always fair.

In 2021 Collingwood suffered the ignominy of losing to the Gold Coast. After nine years which included a grand final appearance, club legend, Nathan Buckley was gone. Craig McRae stepped in and two years later was a premiership coach. In 2011, Dean Bailey’s Melbourne team was thrashed by Geelong at Kardinia Park by 186 points. Despite following club’s orders to tank he was cruelly sacked. It remains one of football’s great injustices.

Malcolm Blight came out of retirement in 2001 to coach St Kilda. It lasted 15 rounds until the aptly timed Friday 13th when the Saints were thrashed, ironically by Adelaide, by 97 points. Even the greats are sacked. This time it was perpetrated by Machiavellian intrique and deception from within. The Saints are yet to win another flag since that 1966 one point triumph.

The Crows last four games of the season are against finals contending teams, Geelong, the Bulldogs, Port Adelaide and Sydney. They are tough games but there can be no excuses. The only way to expunge the stain of those unacceptable performances against Hawthorn, Richmond and Fremantle is for Nicksy and the team to show the members and supporters that there is talent, there is a future and they can be optimistic.