Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks reveals he was coward punched during neo-Nazi attack on Hindley St

Crows coach Matthew Nicks has revealed he was an innocent victim of a terrifying coward punch attack from a neo-Nazi thug during a bloody rampage through the CBD.

Crows AFL coach Matthew Nicks has revealed that he was a victim of a terrifying coward punch attack from a neo-Nazi thug during a gang’s bloody rampage through the CBD.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Nicks told how the random and savage assault while socialising with mates in Hindley St in 1994 has had a profound effect on his future.

“It changed my life substantially,” Nicks said of the unprovoked attack that knocked him unconscious as an emerging teenage football star with SANFL team West Adelaide.

Adelaide Football Club senior Coach, Matthew Nicks. Picture Sarah Reed

Nicks, now 48, is breaking an almost three decade public silence about the “life-altering attack” as he becomes the Sammy D foundation’s fourth anti-violence ambassador.

In a deeply personal interview with 7News, which goes to air on Monday night, the father-of-three told how he was out on the town with friends when he was 18.

He tells presenter Rosanna Mangiarelli, a Sammy D board director, how he was an innocent victim of the random attack as extremists stormed the CBD.

“The first thing you remember is friends all around you, blood and nose spread all over my face,” he said.

“Not really sure what had happened. I was … quite a mess.”

West Adelaide Football Club 1994 team featuring Matthew Nicks circled. Picture: Adelaide Football Club

Sydney's Matthew Nicks handballs clear of Brent Harvey (29) and Peter Bell of North Melbourne in 1997. Nicks had a successful career with the Swans

Nicks, who was drafted to the Sydney Swans AFL team later that year, suffered serious facial injuries and was treated at Flinders Medical Centre.

The high profile attack, which left at least 15 people injured, changed Nicks’ perspective on strangers and socialising in public.

He is helping the foundation – founded in memory of 2008 one punch victim Sam Davis, 17 – in its mission to stamp out assaults and educating young people on bullying as well as drug or alcohol fuelled violence.

The 1994 extremist attack sparked community outrage. Picture: 7News

Then Adelaide Lord Mayor Henry Ninio and SA Police Commissioner David Hunt in Rundle Mall, as they unveilled plans for greater vigilance after neo-Nazi rampage injured at least 15 people. Pictured on 28 March 1994. Picture: Advertiser staff

The Advertiser’s front page reporting on the 1994 rampage.

During 15 minutes of terror on Saturday, March 26, 1994, up to 20 neo-Nazis wearing skinhead-style “uniforms’’ tore through the city’s most popular areas while shouting sickening Nazi slurs.

The riot, which sparked community outrage and a city safety crackdown, erupted at 10pm as the gang fought bouncers outside a Rundle St pub.

The shaved head, heavily tattooed extremists, wearing white T-shirts – some with British flags – braces, heavy boots and Nazi insignias including swastikas, rampaged west through Rundle Mall and then Hindley St.

They yelled insults, slogans and hooligan soccer-style chants.

Victims, most of whom were from ethnic backgrounds, described scenes from the 1992 Aussie film Romper Stomper, starring Russell Crowe.

Jacqueline McKenzie and Russell Crowe (right) and Daniel Pollock (left) in Romper Stomper.

The film depicts a gang of violent young neo-Nazi skinheads from Footscray, Victoria, who attack three Vietnamese Australian teenagers in a tunnel at Footscray Station, brutally beating two of them.

Sammy D founder, Labor Cabinet Minister Nat Cook – Sam Davis’s mother – paid tribute to Nicks’ courage.

West Adelaide footballer Matthew Nicks after being drafted by AFL team the Sydney Swans on 28 Oct 1994. Picture: Ray Titus

Matthew Nicks is now an anti-violence ambassador for the Sammy D Foundation. Picture: 7News

“Matthew Nicks sharing this message with young people can only assist with the anti-violence message,” she said.

“The foundation has an amazing team working to provide skills and give young people the strength to understand that violence is never the answer.”

Nicks played a total of 175 games with the Swans during 10 seasons. He retired from football in 2005 after a string of injuries.

He was appointed as Adelaide Football Club’s head coach in 2019 after assistant roles at the Power and Greater Western Sydney.

Watch the full interview on 7News, Monday at 6pm

Originally published as Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks reveals he was coward punched during neo-Nazi attack on Hindley St