Inside the Crows rebuild: Matthew Nicks addresses the elephant in the room – is the progress real?

As Matthew Nicks says, ‘progression is not always obvious’ – but is it really there at the Crows? He addresses the elephant in the room, and we analyse the rebuild three years in.

Matthew Nicks has defied predictions he would not see out Adelaide’s rebuild.

On stage at the Crows’ Club Champion awards night, Adelaide senior coach Matthew Nicks addressed the theoretical elephant in the room.

After the Crows AFLW coach Matthew Clarke used his speech at the women’s club champion award in April to speak about his fascination with frogs and bicycles – Nicks decided to “take a risk as well”.

“I’m going to continue on the animal theme, and what I want to talk about is the African elephant,” Nicks told the room at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Showing off an impressive knowledge of the animal, Nicks told the crowd of how the African elephant’s two-year pregnancy was the “development and preparation” that set up the calf for a “long and impressive life”.

“Like the elephant our development as a squad is well and truly underway,” he said.

“Progression is not always obvious, the reward for effort not always immediate.

“But over time it will emerge.”

Adelaide enjoys a win over North Melbourne this year.

He might have said it was a risk but it is the kind of positive messaging that Nicks has become known for since succeeding Don Pyke at the end of 2019.

When he first walked through the doors at West Lakes, Nicks immediately made the idea of “prioritising others” at the core of his culture overhaul of the Crows.

Since the start of his tenure, Nicks has asked players to consider how they were “filling up each other’s’ “buckets” – whether it was pumping up a teammate off the field or praising their on-field successes.

The prioritising others mantra has also been pushed to football department and administration staff, while the team-first mentality also extended to players’ lives outside the club, with partners and kids invited to training when Covid permitted.

Rory Sloane and Taylor Walker celebrate a win with Crows fans.

Nicks, who massive hours he puts in at the Crows had him worried about his work-life balance after his first year, had long promised himself that if he became a senior coach he would make the footy club a place where players and coaches could bring their families to work.

Of all the criticisms that have come the Crows way in recent years, the one by Andrew McLeod – considered by many to be the club’s greatest ever player – in 2020 that he felt the club wasn’t a “place you feel welcomed” was the one that really stung and concerned fans.

It these type of actions that has Nicks’ reputation high among players both in and out of the Crows.

“He’s a legend,” the newest Crow Izak Rankine said of Nicks.

“I’ve only heard good things about him”.

While immediately after his career ended Port Adelaide legend Robbie Gray asked Nicks when they would get a beer together, despite the rivalry between their two clubs.

Back on stage at the Convention Centre Nicks finished by telling the crowd “we will be stronger next year, and even smarter and once this elephant fully develops and reaches its full potential it will be bloody hard to move”.

It was fitting that Nicks chose the elephant as a metaphor for his side’s progress.

The Crows have made steady progress with Matthew Nicks as coach.

Because for the past couple of years the Crows and the progress of their rebuild have been the elephant in the room when it comes to South Australian sport.

Other teams have experienced falls after a crushing grand final or finals loss.

But none have been as publicised and scrutinised since the Crows following their shock 48-point loss to Richmond in the 2017 Grand Final.

The controversial pre-season camp on the Gold Coast in 2018 still makes headlines four-years later.

A review commissioned following the 2019 season found “a culture of self-survival” had set in among players and coaches after the camp fractured the playing group and created distrust in the football program.

On top of resetting the culture at West Lakes, Nicks was also tasked with leading the Crows through the first true rebuild in their history.

No previous coach had survived after missing finals more than two-years in a row at the Crows.

Nicks will enter his fourth season in 2023, with a 18th place finish in 2020, 15th in 2021 and 14th this year.

Two-time premiership winner with North Melbourne David King has declared there was “no way” Nicks could survive this rebuild at the Crows.

On multiple occasions this year irate Crows fans have taken to social media to question how the rebuild was travelling, and even Nicks’ suitability as senior coach.

But the key figures at the Crows couldn’t be more emphatic about Nicks as a senior coach.

Crows chief executive Tim Silvers said Nicks is “the man to deliver success to our club”.

Chairman John Olsen said the culture Nicks had created “will form the basis of success” for the Crows.

Inaugural Crows chief executive Bill Sanders said rebuilds required “a lot of patience and understanding”.

“One of the perils of bottoming out is that your football supporters are keen for success and they want to see your team winning,” he said.

“It takes a really strong steady hand to keep your focus on what you are trying to do.”

Jake Soligo became a senior regular in his first year.

Jordan Dawson has fast become one of Adelaide’s best players.

The rebuild has received a major boost with young South Australian star Rankine arriving from the Gold Coast.

Rankine follows on from Jordan Dawson also returning to South Australia under Nicks’ watch, while the club has drafted young guns Riley Thilthorpe, Josh Rachele and Jake Soligo.

Will the addition Rankine take a team Nicks says is “playing a finals brand” for football to the top eight?

Adelaide list manager Justin Reid said the Crows still had some development to go through despite the big addition.

“There were some really positive signs from this year,” Reid said.

“But it won’t be all linear, there are still some tough times ahead.

“But I feel like we are building the right foundations and it would be unreal to go from eight wins this year to knocking on the door of finals.

“But I’m also realistic about our demographic.

“We’d love to get back to finals sooner rather than later, but we were still the youngest 22 in the competition in each of the games we played this year.”