Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says playing AFL should be focus rather than David Koch complaining about Hotel plans

Port Adelaide chairman David Koch says his club has requested a separate hotel from the Crows during its Gold Coast stay, and Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has responded.

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Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says the long awaited resumption of AFL on the Gold Coast takes precedence over sharing accommodation with Port Adelaide, despite protests from its chairman David Koch.

Koch has asked the AFL to not house Port and the Crows at the Mercure Golf Resort on the Gold Coast preferring to bunk down with one of the West Australian teams.

The concerns of Koch, labelled a poor man’s Eddie McGuire by Collingwood Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan, were dismissed by Nicks who says it’s important to look at the bigger picture in a COVID-19 landscape.

“I don’t have an issue with Port Adelaide whatsoever. We cross the white line and think she is on. I know a lot of our guys know each other really well,” said Nicks, who spent seven years as Port Adelaide assistant to coach Ken Hinkley until 2018.

“There is a lot of work done behind the scenes especially this season in and around how the AFL, players and coaches were going to do whatever they can to stay together and play games, that is what we are about at this point.

“Sharing a hotel with Port Adelaide I have no issue. When we have that Showdown at a neutral venue, different story.”

Crows coach Matthew Nicks speaks to the media during a press conference at the club's West Lakes. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz.

Nicks has committed Adelaide to staying in its Gold Coast hub ‘for as long as we need to get games played’.

Adelaide, Port, West Coast, Fremantle, Gold Coast and Brisbane will play at four rounds in Queensland from June 11.

“That is our focus, work in four week blocks,” said Nicks, who departs for the Gold Coast on Sunday with full contact training permitted in Queensland from May 25 as opposed to June 8 in South Australia.

Nicks doesn’t believe staying the same hotel would affect the famous Showdown rivalry if played on the Gold Coast but Koch isn’t convinced labelling it ‘ridiculous’.

“Absolutely. I reckon it definitely will,” Koch said.

“Particularly if we do have a Showdown in Queensland. What do you train next to each other and get the same bus? Give me a break.

“We were going to be in the same hotel and, you know, they don’t like each other. So why? It’s ridiculous.”

Nicks said the only hiccup to sharing a hotel was who ‘gets the pool’ at different times.

Koch told FiveAA that the Crows and Port were so different they couldn’t inhabit the same hotel.

Port Adelaide chairman David Koch says the Power and Crows staying in the same hotel will affect the Showdown rivalry. Picture: AAP Image/Kelly Barnes.

“We’ve actually requested not to be in the same hotel,” Koch said.

“We have enormous respect for the team, for the Crows, absolutely enormous respect, but just don’t like you. We’re so different. Why should we have to spend eight weeks in the same hotel? So we’ve requested to the AFL – why don’t you put us with one of the Western Australian teams …

“We’re so different. We eat Balfour’s meat pies and you eat quiche … and you guys drink chardonnay. Great respect, but nup. You’re not our type of people.”

Meanwhile, Power coach Ken Hinkley says AFL players are “probably being shutdown a little bit too far” in terms of what they can and cannot do in the community.

As states start to ease restrictions, they will ramp up for players in a bid to keep the season going when it resumes on June 11.

Hinkley said players of the Power and Adelaide would have to deal with a lot.

“I drove around Adelaide yesterday and the movement that I see in our state, a clean state that has no infections. To me we can live above the standard,” he said.

“We are getting tested twice a week, but I’m looking at the community thinking everyone else is having to live a pretty reasonable life.

“I think we are probably being shutdown a little bit too far in terms of what we can and can’t do.”

Power players returned to Alberton for the first time since March yesterday, going through the club and training in six separate groups as part of COVID-19 protocols.

They will train at Alberton this week, in the limited groups, before flying to the Gold Coast on Sunday to enter into what the AFL has called a “high performance centre” (HPC) to get the required contact training in before the season restarts.

Port Adelaide players return to training at Alberton Oval. Picture: Kelly Barnes

An AFL memo provided to players says they can go to supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, get takeaway food or drink, take kids to school or daycare and visit a close friend or family member in hospital.

What they cannot do includes, surf, play golf, let any social visitors into their homes, sit down in a cafe, go over to a friends house for a meal and have people – including families if they don’t live with them – over to their house.

For the Power, Adelaide, West Coast and Fremantle players who have to go into the HPC’s to restart the season because of SA and WA border restrictions the Gold Coast resorts they will enter will be considered their home environments.

Despite set to be put up on a golf resort, the memo says players cannot play golf “at this stage” but the AFL will work with the resorts and relevant health authorities to try and change this.

Hinkley said he hoped the Power would not spend an extended amount of time on the Gold Coast.

“It’s not going to be easy for anyone, but it is certainly going to be a little bit more challenging if you have a young family,” he said.

“Hopefully as a footy club we aren’t there for longer than the six or seven weeks but I don’t know.

Tom Jonas, Jackson Mead and Martin Fredrick part of the Port Adelaide players returning to training at Alberton Oval. Picture: Kelly Barnes

“We would have some issues (staying there longer) but we have to do what we have to do.

“I think we can deal with it for a bit but there is a tipping point.”

Power players were mixed up in the six groups to ensure an even mix of senior and younger players and not an entire positional group training all at once.

“One of the risks if we were to do it like that if one of them was tested and was to be in a bit of trouble you may lose the entire backline,” Hinkley said.

“We might be starting with a backline of (Charlie) Dixon, (Todd) Marshall and (Brad) Ebert cause we’ve lost the whole backline so we are a bit mindful of that.”

Hinkley said the enforced break had been a positive because the Power will now have Dixon and Ollie Wines, who suffered injuries in pre-season, back to full fitness and Ebert and Hamish Hartlett did not miss any games from the injuries they sustained against the Gold Coast in Round 1.

“You look for the positives and they are ready to go, they are fit and firing,” Hinkley said.

Crows back COVID-19 protocols

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks backs the club’s COVID-19 protocols on the Gold Coast despite its Barossa breach and experienced stars to fill the coaching void left by forced redundancies.

Adelaide players are this week being educated on hard line bio-safe protocols expected in their Mercure Hotel quarantine hub with Port Adelaide on the Gold Coast.

“Everyone wants to get it right, not so much for the bashing you will get from the media but getting it right for the AFL,” Nicks said.

“We want to play footy, everyone is dying to see some footy. We will make sure we get the protocols right.”

The clear edict from Nicks is ‘if in doubt, don’t go there’.”

“There are restrictions around what we can do. It is only essential. If you need food, want to go the supermarket or exercise you are allowed to do that,” said Nicks adding players wouldn’t be taking golf clubs to the Gold Coast as they are ‘there to play football’.

Nicks took issue with AFL chairman Richard Goyder saying club’s Barossa isolation breach this month ‘didn’t help’ unsuccessful negotiations with the South Australian government to grant fly-in, fly-out exemptions for the Crows and Port Adelaide.

“SA Health have come out and said it had nothing to do with the decision around borders and where they currently sit,” Nicks said.

Andrew McPherson receives a handpass from Daniel Talia who controlled Adelaide’s defensive line session at West Lakes. AAP/David Mariuz.

Adelaide’s defensive line returned for training in groups of eight at West Lakes on Monday with stalwart Daniel Talia the main coaching presence. Defensive coach Marty Mattner and development mentor Paul Thomas were made redundant in savage cost cutting measures. Forward coach Ben Hart is serving a six week ban as the scapegoat for Adelaide’s Barossa isolation breach.

Talia controlled the eight-strong session with Brent Reilly which included Bryce Gibbs, Luke Brown, Wayne Milera, Andy McPherson, Jake Kelly, Rory Laird and David Mackay. It was a glimpse of a future with less line coaches and players relying on instinct.

“Daniel is running the backs session. We have some great leaders in that respect so a good chance for us to let them go to work,” Nicks said.

“The backs are going through and getting any work in they possibly can.”

First-year senior boss Nicks conceded the new normal could include just three coaches in the grandstand box on match day with leaders like Talia crucial to implementing game plans.

“For us we have done whatever we can to limit our messaging on game day, do a lot of work during the week and empower our guys on game day to run the show.

“We give them an oversight from what we see upstairs,” Nicks said.

“Having less voices may mean less messaging. A lot of it has changed, there is a lot less instruction and more listening from coaching groups.”

Nicks will gain a clear indication of the squad’s physical condition once full training starts in Queensland where Port, West Coast, Fremantle, Brisbane and the Suns will be based for the next six weeks.

Originally published as Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks says playing AFL should be focus rather than David Koch complaining about Hotel plans