Analysis: Timing makes sense in Adelaide Crows’ two-year contract extension for coach Matthew Nicks

Matthew Nicks has been given a big show of faith early in the season by Adelaide, now the fifth-year coach has to deliver, writes MATT TURNER.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks (right) with captain Jordan Dawson after his contract extension. Picture: Mark Brake

Adelaide chief executive Tim Silvers described it as “a bit of a formality”.

As revealed by this masthead, the club had all but committed to re-signing Matthew Nicks on a two-year deal six months ago, what was left was agreeing to the details and announcing it.

The Crows would have been hoping to do so after a round-1 win against Gold Coast, leading into their first home game on Friday night versus Geelong.

They lost, playing abysmally in the first half, but it would only have made sense for the club to wait on an announcement if the Suns had trounced them.

Although Adelaide had said it was in “no rush” to extend the coach, revealing it on Thursday made sense.

Silvers believed Nicks was “going to take the next steps and take us into finals, and be a successful footy club, going from good to great”.

Saturday night’s one-goal first half or six-point defeat were not going to change that.

The longer Adelaide waited, the more it could have made a rod for its own back.

Something the club wanted to avoid by not setting a timeline, like Port Adelaide did last season.

If the Crows lose at home to the Cats, they will be 0-2 ahead of a tough trip to Fremantle, before tricky games against Melbourne (home) and Carlton (away).

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has re-signed until the end of 2026. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

They had made clear publicly over summer that an extension was a fait accompli, so get it out of the way now, particularly before that difficult month.

External noise will dissipate for the time being, allowing Nicks and the team to get on with the job of trying to end the club’s seven-year finals drought.

But it will return if Adelaide struggles this season.

The Crows have been more patient with Nicks than any of their previous coaches, sticking fat with him and in the club’s strategy to undergo its first rebuild steadily, rather than deviate and chase quick wins.

Previously, no Adelaide coach had survived after two years of missing the finals.

Nicks, whose tenure began in 2020 with a 0-13 start and the club’s first wooden spoon, had fallen short of the major round in all four seasons at the helm.

Last year, the Crows’ improvement was obvious with victories over premiership contenders Brisbane, Port Adelaide (twice) and Carlton, and narrow losses to Collingwood (twice), the Lions and Melbourne.

Their shortcomings were exposed on the road where they were 2-8.

They finished 10th and were an almost team, perhaps unsurprisingly for the league’s second-youngest squad.

While the increase in wins has been gradual, Adelaide appears ready to take the next step so Nicks deserves a new deal.

The coach said he had never felt pressure from the Crows’ board across his four seasons, “other than we’re always pushing to be better”.

But he conceded that this year would be the most pressure – in general – that he and his group would have felt since arriving.

Matthew Nicks alongside chief executive Tim Silvers at Thursday’s announcement. Picture:re Mark Brake

Nicks is now tied to the club until the end of 2026 but supporters who have been very patient will quickly run out of it if their side does not return to the finals this year.

And Adelaide officials will want to have a good excuse if the team misses the top eight.

“With expectation comes pressure, with ambition comes failure so we’ve got to work our way through that,” Nicks said.

“We’ve seen a lot of young sides get to this point and momentum’s there, but it’s definitely not linear when you talk about a young group developing.

“The challenge this year is to handle that pressure.

“We believe strongly that our game style will stand up in finals, the work we have to do is get ourselves there.”

As for how he would prepare for that, Nicks said: “We go back to process. There’s no point looking at the top of the mountain, you’ll trip on the way up. We’ll take it one game at a time and lock in on what we do well”.

Silvers said Nicks deserved a new deal for “raising the bar and making progress throughout the rebuild”.

“It’s a conversation we’ve been having over the last six months and the contract really has been a bit of a formality,” Silvers said.

“Today isn’t necessarily about what he’s done in the past, it’s about what he’s going to do in the future.”

A contract extension is a sign of faith in Nicks, now his team has to deliver.

Originally published as Analysis: Timing makes sense in Adelaide Crows’ two-year contract extension for coach Matthew Nicks