Adelaide great Mark Ricciuto says avoiding finals talk the right move by Crows ahead of 2025 season

It’s shaping as a crunch season for Matthew Nicks and the Crows. Former skipper Mark Ricciuto says the club has already made one right move by avoiding one of the pitfalls of their 2024 campaign.

Adelaide legend Mark Ricciuto says the Crows are doing the right thing in narrowing their focus on nothing but Round 1 against St Kilda.

In a complete change from the messaging coming out of West Lakes ahead of the 2024 campaign, finals isn’t being spoken about by the Crows at all on the eve of the 2025 season.

The word wasn’t mentioned at all by either Crows chairman John Olsen or senior coach Matthew Nicks at Adelaide’s season launch on Wednesday night - in which the club announced an operating surplus of just over $4 million.

In fact when Nicks was asked about what fans can look forward to the most in 2025, he replied with “Round 1, just look forward to Round 1. That’s where we are at this point”.

It is a stark contrast from when the Crows said they were ready to embrace expectations and that they expected to play finals leading into the 2024 campaign.

Matthew Nicks is facing a crunch season in his tenure as Crows coach.

Ricciuto, a Fox Footy commentator and Crows board member, told The Advertiser he was optimistic about 2025 but he liked the tactic from the Crows.

“You can absolutely get lost if you look too much in advance,” he said.

“I think there is nothing wrong in narrowing their focus and lowering their eyes. To win a game of football you just worry about the first quarter, you worry about the first contest and you take it from there.

“I think simplifying it to Round 1 and St Kilda is not a bad strategy at all.

“That is what we are hearing a lot from the club at the moment, I know they are really happy with the off-season they have had.”

This off-season involved bringing in Melbourne premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen and GWS pair Isaac Cumming and James Peatling.

“We have heard about their recruits and they are going to bring age and experience and leadership to the team that need it, all of that,” Ricciuto said.

“Age is not a reason any more and the games played is getting in to that right zone as well.

“I’m very excited about what they can deliver, like everyone they want their best players out there more often than not than they had last year and fingers crossed that can happen.”

Mark Ricciuto thinks Sid Draper can add to the Crows midfield in his debut season.

The three recruits along with No. 4 draft pick Sid Draper and Tyler Welsh were presented with their guernseys on Wednesday night.

Draper is pushing his case for a Round 1 debut, with Nicks revealing on Wednesday night that the South Adelaide product had replaced Rory Laird as his “new son”.

The young gun played in the Crows’ A team in their internal trial last week with Izak Rankine away with the Indigenous All Stars.

Ricciuto said having them both in there could make the Crows midfield a formidable one.

“If he can keep his body sound, which is always a bit of a challenge for a young kid, but if he can he is going to add that extra speed and power that Rankine has got,” he said.

“And if you can have multiple players like that through your midfield bit like what Port (Adelaide) have you become a much harder midfield to contain.”

But the biggest recruit might be off-the-field with Murray Davis winning plaudits as the Crows’ coaching director.

On Wednesday night, Nicks said the Crows could have gone after a really experienced former senior coach - “Paul Roos for example” - but in Davis they had “found what we need”.

Ricciuto said Davis’ experience would be invaluable.

“He has been at Brisbane for 13 years and been there for the tough times,” he said.

“He has been there when they started climbing up the ladder to start getting in the eight. He has been there when they started to get stuck in the middle of the eight and then started to get to the top.

“He was part of an unlucky losing grand final and then last year nothing went right at the start of the year and they decided to take the game on and got to the finals and absolutely smashed them.

“His experience of everything Brisbane has gone through will be invaluable not just for Nicksy but all the other coaches and Adam Kelly.”

Ricciuto will again be part of Fox Footy’s “bigger and better” coverage in 2025, in a year when they will have every Saturday game live and exclusive nationally for the first eight rounds of the home-and-away season.

In this period, which ends with the round 9 Showdown, Crows and Power matches on Saturdays will be shown on free-to-air on delay.

Joining Ricciuto will be fellow former Crow Eddie Betts and Port Adelaide and Hawthorn legend Shaun Burgoyne.

“With Shaun in the back pocket, Eddie in the forward pocket and me in the middle I reckon we have the whole ground covered,” he said.

Originally published as Adelaide great Mark Ricciuto says avoiding finals talk the right move by Crows ahead of 2025 season