Ex-Sydney Swans teammates believe new Crows coach Matthew Nicks is great fit for Adelaide as AFL deals with coronavirus crisis
Matthew Nicks began his AFL journey with Sydney in 1994. Now he’ll coach his first game for Adelaide – against Sydney. Ex-Swans teammates say he’ll be the perfect leader in these difficult times.
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Matthew Nicks started AFL life in 1994 as “the glue” of a southeast Sydney unit that featured three Swans teenagers who had just met and had little idea what was in store.
The trio – Nicks, Michael O’Loughlin and Simon Arnott – were housemates for four years in Kensington, next-door to Gai Waterhouse’s stables, where strappers sending horses up the road to Randwick or trucks arriving with hay bales would regularly wake them up at 4.30am.
Aged 19, 18 and 17 respectively, they arrived from Adelaide and Melbourne, had never lived out of home and it was Nicks, the bubbliest and most mature, who helped the group acclimatise.
Twenty-five years on, far greater uncertainty awaits Nicks as he gets set to make his senior coaching debut – coincidentally against the Swans – at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
But Arnott, believes his ex-housemate is the perfect leader to navigate Crows players through the challenges the coronavirus pandemic is presenting to clubs in these extraordinary circumstances.
“It would be a stressful time for players,” Arnott, a 56-game former Sydney and Geelong player, tells The Advertiser.
“I think he’s got the right temperament for that and character for those type of situations to not get players wound up and on edge.
“I reckon that’ll be one of his strengths – he’ll have a bit of fun with the players, still focus on what their job is, but also relax in case something does change.
“(As housemates) he was funny, entertaining, full of beans, very energetic type of guy.
“I was very quiet, shy, reserved, Mick was really young and raw … and Nicksy was the glue to get us together to come out of our shells, have a bit of fun and take it seriously when we needed to.”
Arnott was introduced to Nicks at their new place after the trio joined the club via the national draft – Nicks with pick 21, O’Loughlin at 40 and Arnott at 87.
“We arrived at the front door with our suitcases going ‘nice to meet you, we’re living with each other now’,” says Arnott, a teammate from 1995-98 who is now sports operations manager at Melbourne’s Wesley College.
“Nicksy was a little bit more mature, had worked … and so he was a good person to have around because if we were all 17, 18, it would’ve been a little more daunting.
“(Sydney football manager) Rob Snowdon would leave and then it was ‘you’ve got training at the Showgrounds at 4.30pm – get there’.
“So we had to find our way through Centennial Park and arrive at our first training session by walking there because none of us had a car yet.”
Nicks – a West Adelaide junior who had a soccer background and did not take up football until he was 16 – broke his leg in his first week of training with the Swans, preventing him from featuring in his first season, unlike Arnott and O’Loughlin.
But Nicks debuted in 1996 and went on to forge a 175-game career that ended due to a stress fracture in his femur in 2005, costing him a spot in Sydney’s premiership.
“When I knew him (at the Swans) he was pretty raw to the game but seemed to pick up things quickly,” says Arnott, also a four-time SANFL premiership player with Central District.
“He was a very switched on, intelligent fella.
“Now that you look back, you can see the path that he was on.”
Arnott reckons for Nicks to become senior coach of the Crows as they rejuvenate after two years without finals is an ideal situation.
“He’s the perfect person for Adelaide to build relationships again and get everyone on track,” Arnott says of the ex-GWS and Port Adelaide assistant.
“His mum and dad are wonderful, really nice people, so to be back closer to them is a great fit for him.”
Arnott catches up with Nicks when he can and will send him a pre-game text to wish good luck because travel restrictions and spectator bans have quashed plans for him, O’Loughlin and other ex-Swans to be at Adelaide Oval.
“It’s amazing (having Sydney as his first game) … it’s a nice little bit of symmetry,” he says.
“I’m sure he’d like to knock his old team off.”
Media personality and Adelaide fan Ryan Fitzgerald had also hoped to come across to support his former Sydney teammate’s first match but instead had to now watch it at home.
Fitzgerald, who played 10 games for the Swans and eight for the Crows, is excited about Nicks taking charge.
During the coaching selection process, Adelaide football director Mark Ricciuto contacted the Sydney-based Nova breakfast radio host to gauge his thoughts on Nicks.
“I said ‘look mate, I don’t know much about his coaching and tactics and intricate things like that, but I tell you one thing, he’ll bring your boys together and think the club needs that’,” Fitzgerald tells The Advertiser.
“He’s articulate and emotionally very, very intelligent – he can pick people’s moods and knows when to get his point across or give them some space.
“When I played with Nicksy at the Swans, he was just a great person to get the camaraderie and everyone together and make sure everyone was having a good time.
“He was humorous himself and popular down the club, and one thing I know speaking to Crows players like Tex (Taylor Walker) and Brodie Smith, everyone is enjoying this pre-season so much.
“And I don’t care if people don’t think we have the cattle, when you are enjoying your footy it’s a totally different story and it takes you to the next level.”
Fitzgerald learnt about Nicks’ ability to get a group to jell – to be the glue, as Arnott called it – after joining the Swans at the end of 1998.
“Nicksy got drafted from Adelaide to go to Sydney, like I did, and that’s your first taste of independence – you leave your parents and friends from home, and you never want to leave Adelaide,” he says.
“You go to Sydney, the biggest city in the country and he moved in with Micky O’Loughlin, and those boys took you under their wing.
“You’re so nervous and s**t scared to start a life in a city like that, and they made me feel so comfortable.
“They’d show you around, invite you over their place for barbecues – they were true leaders.
“With young kids coming to the Crows, Nicksy has been there and done it and knows exactly how they’re feeling, so that will be a huge positive.”