Adelaide Crows’ inaugural captain Chris McDermott calls for sweeping changes around Matthew Nicks

Adelaide’s first captain has backed Matthew Nicks to remain as the club’s coach – but says sweeping changes are needing for the Crows to become a force again.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 15: Matthew Nicks, Senior Coach of the Crows during the 2024 AFL Round 14 match between the Adelaide Crows and the Sydney Swans at Adelaide Oval on June 15, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Inaugural Crows captain Chris McDermott has called for a clean out of staff around Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks in the hope the embattled club can start from scratch.

Inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, McDermott labelled his feeling towards the 15th-placed Crows as “frustration”.

Chris McDermott was added to the hall of fame on Tuesday. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

McDermott backed under siege coach Nicks but said the club needed to look at itself and find the right people to have around the coach as to take steps towards its first finals appearance since 2017.

He pointed to Richmond’s successful revamp in late 2016, when the Tigers backed in coach Damien Hardwick as the right man and remodelled the football department around him as a blue print for success.

The Tigers won three of the next four premierships.

“For probably 10 years it feels like it is changing, chopping, not quite getting it right,” McDermott said.

“I don’t think they have ever just wiped the whiteboard off, got it clean and really started again. And that probably means that some people probably need to stand aside, move aside and take one for the team.

“And I think it is about time that that was a motto for them – to take one for the team because it is all about the team.”

Crows coach Matthew Nicks is under fire. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

McDermott played 117 games for the Crows and was captain for the club’s first four AFL seasons.

He said Nicks was a “fantastic coach” but questioned whether the hierarchy at the Crows was switched on to footy as it deals with the development of a new HQ in Thebarton.

“I think they are a little distracted at the minute with the relocation and going to a new facility,” he said.

“I am not quite sure their focus as a club is completely where it needs to be but I would be putting all my support behind Matthew Nicks and the team.”

McDermott said he wasn’t planning to throw his hat in the ring to help the Crows in a board or staff capacity given “there are other wiser, more modern brains than mine for the club to dip into”.

Chris McDermott got the chance to celebrate his induction with family. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Speaking the morning after his induction into the hall of fame, McDermott revealed he enjoyed the night with great mate Stephen Kernahan until 3am.

McDermott said he turned into a “pathetic fan boy” with all the greats in the room at the function.

“To have the family there and for them to experience something they probably haven’t before, it was a magic night,” he said.

“And one I am going to be grateful for a long, long time.”

Originally published as Adelaide Crows’ inaugural captain Chris McDermott calls for sweeping changes around Matthew Nicks