AFL Now: Crows happy to keep Sid Draper as sub against North Melbourne

Crows fans are crying out to see more of Sid Draper to cap off a stunning start to 2025, but Matthew Nicks says there’s one thing holding the young star back from being truly unleashed.

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says it is “not an issue” if Sid Draper is the sub for a third-straight game.

The Crows have kept the same side for their two games so far this season, in which they have both won.

Draper, who the Crows used the No.4 pick in last year’s draft to take, has been the starting substitute in both matches and has taken the field in the third quarter both games.

Nicks said the club needed to consider Draper’s conditioning, but he had no qualms about the highly-touted Crow in the vest for a third-straight game against North Melbourne on Sunday.

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The young gun has been the sub in the Crows’ first two outings. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

“Yeah (we have to) keep his match fitness up and we do a lot of work around that,” Nicks said.

“If Sid doesn’t play (a full game), he plays a quarter and a half, he does a lot of work to get his loads back to where we need them.

“But there is a challenge with that, playing at match level and the demands of the competition and against an oppo is not the same as running up and back post-game.

“You see him doing that post-game and he doesn’t enjoy it but at the moment it is not an issue, Sid is a professional already… it will just be one that we will keep an eye on in the next couple of weeks.”

The Crows’ 2-0 start to the year, in which they have blown St Kilda and Essendon away, has Nicks’ side getting rave reviews externally.

But he said they were still focusing on the next challenge and would be able to block out the external hype.

“We’ve had too many learnings across the journey and we are going to embrace where we are at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve already learnt our lesson, we did a fair bit of learning last year. This year is focused on the moment.”

Nicks said the Crows were expecting a tough test from a Kangaroos outfit that had significantly improved in 2025.

“They are a different side, no doubt about that. They have made some acquisitions, some really high level acquisitions, they have some guys in the draft that we really liked and they are performing accordingly,” he said.

“Their performance was as good as anyone in the competition.

“From our point of view we love to see that, we love to see the best of them and we know the level we need to be at.

“We aren’t playing the North Melbourne from last year… they have made a huge development over a short period of time under a high level coach.

“What they are doing they are doing really well and playing some high level footy.”

Nicks said star Izak Rankine would be good to go after he was subbed out of the big win over the Bombers last week as a precaution.

“So much noise around it, we found ourselves in a situation for two weeks where through a little bit of luck with the health of our list and no contact injuries we can make decisions in games,” he said.

“We have lost Izak to hammy (injuries) the last two games at the MCG prior to that, I’d be lying if I said there were not some scars in the back of my mind.

“It would be lovely to be in that position every week and we will do what we can to manage players but we know we will be challenged.”

On top of being dedicated to the state’s emergency services, with 3000 tickets made available to workers, the clash on Sunday will also be Rory Laird’s 250th for the Crows.

Nicks, who coached Laird as a junior, said it would be celebrated by the club.

“Awesome story, lucky enough to coach him as a junior at Scotch College,” he said.

“I always thought he was going to get drafted and he went as a rookie, which was incredible and he has gone onto play 250.

“So 1.86 per cent of players play 250 games, it is an incredible effort.

“He is loved by his teammates, we do take the mickey out of him but that’s only because he is a small player who has played well above his height for 250 games.”

Originally published as AFL Now: Crows happy to keep Sid Draper as sub against North Melbourne