Matt Crouch reacts to Crows football director and Triple M commentator Mark Ricciuto’s withering criticism of the team

Adelaide football director Mark Ricciuto has given a stinging assessment of the Crows on radio, and now coach Matthew Nicks and midfielder Matt Crouch have weighed in.

Adelaide star Matt Crouch has conceded it wasn’t ideal to hear Crows football director Mark Ricciuto savage the side’s skills ahead of the Showdown – but coach Matthew Nicks says the criticism is fair.

Ricciuto took aim at the Crows after their 0-2 start to the season, describing their skill level as “just shocking”.

“They’ve been underachieving,” Ricciuto told Triple M Adelaide.

“They can’t kick, they can’t handball, they can’t kick a goal, they’ve given away free kicks – they really can’t do anything worse.”

The comments by Ricciuto have been criticised by pundits, with former Essendon great Matthew Lloyd saying the players and other key figures at the Crows would not be happy.

But Crows coach Nicks said it was hard to argue against them.

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“Inside the four walls we are having similar conversations. We are all on the same page when it comes to where we are at as a footy club,” Nicks said.

“The performance at the moment is not at the level, it is just not our execution by hand and foot but it is playing roles.

“But we are an extremely young group and pressure can make us go away from our roles and that snowballs into missing handballs, missing kicks

“So we are having those conversations internally, we know we have to get better and we know that we can.”

Matt Crouch says Ricciuto’s comments weren’t ideal. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Ricciuto has come under fire for the comments. Melbourne great Garry Lyon said they were inappropriate from someone in Ricciuto’s position.

“If that was Tim Watson, the footy director of Essendon, who said that, that would blow this town up,” he said on SEN.

“What sort of pressure does that put on Matthew Nicks and the players.”

Nicks denied the comments ratcheted up the pressure on him or his side.

“There is pressure coming from everywhere, there is pressure coming from opposition on game day, there is pressure on young guys making their debut,” he said.

“That’s the game we play, if you can’t handle it then you are in the wrong sport.”

Star midfielder Matt Crouch said Ricciuto’s comments weren’t “ideal’.

“It’s obviously not great (to hear that),” he said on SEN SA.

“It’s not ideal, we do a lot of work in that space. We’re working through that as a group and hopefully you’ll be able to see that this week.”

Originally published as Matt Crouch reacts to Crows football director and Triple M commentator Mark Ricciuto’s withering criticism of the team