Adelaide Crows win first game of 2020 and give Matthew Nicks his first career win, as Hawthorn capitulates
Adelaide broke its 2020 drought with a win against Hawthorn, but signs have been building in recent weeks that Matthew Nicks’ plan for how he wants to play is delivering on the field. Can it bring more success?
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Upon his unveiling as Adelaide senior coach last October, Matthew Nicks said his game plan for the Crows would be built around two key themes.
It has taken close to 11 months but the Crows are starting to finally implement both on the park.
After 13 straight losses this year, and 16 since their last win in August 2019, the Crows finally tasted victory in 2020, giving Nicks his first four points as a senior coach against Hawthorn on Tuesday night.
After the match he said the win was more about showing his players that the game plan he wants to implement at West Lakes can taste success in AFL games.
Because of the Crows’ struggles this year it has been difficult to identify Nicks’ game plan for much of 2020.
But former Essendon assistant coach and AFL opposition analyst Rob Harding said there had been some small signs ahead of the Hawks game.
“We’ve started to see run and carry off half-back, and if that’s their preferred method they have to build on that through the next pre-season,” he said.
“Nicks was keen on half-back run at GWS and their best patches of footy have been when they’re able to generate that overlap run from half-back.”
When Nicks was unveiled as the Crows coach last year he revealed that his game plan would be built around “seeking out the contest” and “inflicting damage on the opposition”.
The latter was seen as forcing turnovers, leading to more opportunities in front of goal.
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But for much of the season, the Crows have been getting belted in the contested ball with their average of -14.7 per game the sixth-worst differential recorded by any side in a season since 1999 after Round 14 according to Champion Data.
Against Hawthorn the Crows were +25 in contested possessions and won clearances by three.
Veteran David Mackay said that was the main difference for the Crows.
“I think the game the way it is played at the moment is you need to win the ball around the stoppages and get it into your forward half,” he said.
“I think what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks when we’ve matched it around the ball and given it to the forwards and given them the opportunity that we can be pretty dangerous.
We think we have a pretty dynamic group up there and if we can give them an opportunity they can get to work and do some damage for us.
“But it does start around the ball.”
Inaugural Crows coach Graham Cornes agreed.
“When they took the game on they were some brilliant passages of play,” he said.
“We saw it start at the contest, we saw how they can take the game on when they do that.”
The Crows also chose to handball the footy significantly more than they have for much of 2020, with their 161 against the Hawks way above their season average of 121.6 per match.
Cornes said the handball could be a “valuable” weapon, but the Crows had to be wary of when it could backfire.
Mackay said the players weren’t looking for the handball more now.
“It wasn’t that specific we are trying to move the ball very quickly like every team,” he said. “Sometimes we can try and move through hand and sometimes through kicks.
“But we were able to move the ball pretty well (against the Hawks).”
NICKS REVEALS BIGGER MEANING BEHIND WIN
Matthew Nicks says the Crows’ first win of 2020 isn’t about him getting his first win as coach of Adelaide, but rather showing his players “that we are going in the right direction”.
Nicks finally was able to sing the song “at the right time” as Adelaide ended a run of 16 straight losses stretching back to August last year on Tuesday night.
Nicks said he started celebrating the Crows’ 35-point win over Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval with about 37 seconds to go in the final quarter.
“More important than singing the song was just looking around at the room, looking at the staff and players and seeing smiling faces and pride in what we saw tonight and we’ve probably seen it in the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“We’ve been able to play footy the way we’ve wanted to and we finally got some reward for that.
“Tonight was really rewarding for everyone, for our members and supporters who have gone through a really tough year and stuck by us.
“It was more about that than singing the song to be honest, I was just dodging Powerade.”
Nicks said the biggest aspect of the win was that it would show the Crows players they are on the right path.
“From my point of view, I hope what it does is just reaffirms to our players what it’s going to take, give them some confidence and I know I’m talking about our players, but that’s what makes me feel good,” he said.
“I’ve been in footy long enough to know what is needed to win games and our players have been working so hard on a particular system and game plan and we’ve been able to implement it now for two weeks.
“We didn’t get a result the first week so it is hard as a coach to convince your players that it is enough to get it done longer term.
“So it was just confirming that to our players, I could see it on their faces and even chatting to them, they know we are on the right track.
“So as a coach it is pleasing to get that feeling back from your players and reassurance that ‘hey, we are going in the right direction’.”
Nicks said as the losses piled up, he did question himself and his methods, but he and the Crows football department “stuck strong in what we believe in”.
“We’ve had so many wins off the field this year that I’ve been confident right the way through that we’ve been getting it right,” he said.
“Even looking around the change rooms and at our players their number one priorities was to look after everyone else in that room, we’ve got young kids who help out doing our media, it was welcoming people into the circle – stuff that is not about football, but makes you a better person, we see it everywhere.
“To be in a position of 0-13 and to be inside our four walls, no-one is allowed because it is a bubble, but you’d be surprised at how much ground this group has made and we are making some extremely confident young men who have some really good priorities in their lives.”
CLARKO URGES SOUND DECISION-MAKING IN REBUILD
Alastair Clarkson says it may seem like Hawthorn “are a world away” from contending for premierships again, but he maintains faith the Hawks can experience a quick renaissance to climb the ladder.
But the legendary coach has said the Hawks cannot do this by just going to a “compromised” draft and warned the club of making “a really bad decision” after Hawthorn slumped to a fifth loss in a row and ninth in 10 matches to the previously winless Adelaide.
The Crows have avoided becoming the first team in the AFL-era to go winless throughout a season with their 35-point win over the Hawks.
Clarkson said his side looked “so dead-legged” coming off a five-day break against Essendon while the Crows had a nine-day lead-up to the clash.
“Part of me wants to smack the players in a sense because god that effort seems so unacceptable, but the environment we are in and what we are going through is so difficult,” he said.
“We are coming off a five-day break and they are coming off a nine-day break, is that the difference? I don’t know, but we looked so flat and lethargic.”
Clarkson said the Hawks’ horror 2020 after going 3-1 has “fast-tracked our views in where our next piece of silverware is going to come from”, but it wouldn’t be about Hawthorn “throwing 10 or 12 kids to the wolves”.
“While we are disappointed where we are, we don’t think it is a mountain to climb for us,” he said.
“When did you think the Bulldogs’ piece of silverware was going to come in 2015? What about Richmond? What about Hawthorn in 2006 and 2007? The game can change really quickly, the fortunes of clubs can change really quickly.
“Right now it just seems like we are a world away from that and it’s not just Hawthorn, it’s a lot of clubs in the competition.
“So we will continue to stick to that view that this isn’t a five, six, seven, eight-year turnaround; this can happen really quickly, but it just seems right at the moment that it seems a long way away for us, but we will find our way.
“We just have to be really careful that in assessing where we are as a footy club that we don’t throw everything (out) and make a really bad decision because of the circumstances that we find ourselves in, and the really unique challenges that we have had to confront this year.”
Clarkson said while many had said Hawthorn should just go to the draft to rebuild its playing list, it wasn’t that simple.
“What is frustrating for coaches and clubs and general managers of footy, there’s not a pure draft anymore,” he said.
“The draft is so compromised with father/sons, academies, it’s a bugbear of mine for instance in this talk of Queensland getting the grand final and wouldn’t it be great for the code up there...
“There are two clubs up there that get the whole state in terms of access to junior talent.
“A national competition that is meant to have equality there are so many compromises, GWS and Sydney share the whole state of New South Wales and the talent that come in that state.
“So when there is that compromise in a national competition it makes it very difficult to find the talent necessary to give you a good chance.
“Gold Coast has access to parts of the NT as well so any Aboriginal talent like Cyril Rioli is going to go to the Gold Coast system
“That is going to make it enormously difficult for clubs like a North Melbourne, like us who find ourselves in the bottom part of the ladder to find a path back is difficult, it sounds like I’m sooking but for the club we’ve been a strong club for a period of time and we will bounce but it makes it difficult given the compromise nature of the draft.
“So that’s why when people say oh why don’t you rebuild and just go to the draft you can’t go to the draft because it is so compromised.”
VICTORY A LONG TIME COMING
The Crows’ win was 16 games in the making and Nicks, his players and suffering Adelaide fans may have been wondering if it was ever going to happen this season.
The match at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday night — strangely a Hawks’ home game — loomed as the best chance the Crows would have to save themselves from becoming the first side in AFL history to go throughout a season winless and since Fitzroy in the 1964 VFL season.
While there were moments where it seemed Adelaide may let this opportunity slip, when the siren sounded, Crows players and coaches were able to celebrate like it was August 2019 again – when they beat St Kilda for their last victory.
SUPER CROUCH BROTHERS
Brad Crouch came back into the side for the first time since injuring his hamstring in Round 8, while brother Matt, after copping criticism for lack of impact, has been ranked No.1 in the AFL for average pressure points (66.7) in rounds 10-14.
In a game when the Crows needed to win the contested ball the Crouch brothers put in a vintage performance.
The Crows have been routinely belted in the contested ball stakes this season — against the Hawks they gave some back.
Matt may still handball it a lot but he gets is a lot as well, finishing with 32 possessions (11 contested). Brad is unlikely to be at the Crows next year but, what both did, was help Adelaide smash Hawthorn in the contested ball by 25.
STENGLE SPARK
For the first time as a Crow, Tyson Stengle showed just how he can impact games.
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing since he came to Adelaide from Richmond, but Stengle finally showed why the Crows backed him with a new two-year contract two weeks ago.
He missed out on kicking the first goal of the match for a remarkable fourth-straight game – although he should have kept this run going when he passed up two easy opportunities to open the scoring.
For the rest of the game, Stengle showed why he was given Eddie Betts’ No.18 at the end of last season, with his crumb to extend the Crows’ lead in the second quarter a moment of magic that showed the difference between the two struggling teams.
HORROR HAWKS
Before the game, coach Alastair Clarkson said winning against the Crows wasn’t “absolutely crucial” for the Hawks.
But Hawthorn fans will want to see something in the final three games of the season to give them some hope about the future.
Jack Scrimshaw (22 disposals, six marks) has stepped up in the absence of James Sicily, while Chad Wingard was definitely up for the fight.
But not enough in brown and gold were good enough against a Crows side which has struggled so much this season.
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SCOREBOARD
HAWTHORN: 1.3, 4.3, 6.5, 7.6 (48)
def by
ADELAIDE: 2.4, 6.6, 9.9, 12.11 (83)
GOALS
Hawks: Gunston 3, Wingard 2, Lewis, Minchington
Crows: Walker, Jones, Schoenberg, Fogarty 2, Stengle, Murphy, McAdam, Keays
SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON’S BEST
Hawks: Wingard, Scrimshaw, Mitchell
Crows: M Crouch, O’Brien, Stengle, McAdam, Smith, B Crouch, Keays, Sloane
SIMEON THOMAS-WILSON’S VOTES
3 — Matt Crouch (Adelaide)
2 — Reilly O’Brien (Adelaide)
1 — Tyson Stengle (Adelaide)