“Too many,” says Nicks. Crows below best as the futile start continues

After losing four games in a row to begin the 2024 season, Adelaide’s season is in jeopardy. Senior coach Matthew Nicks bemoaned that “too many” Crows had not performed up to par during the first month of the campaign.

The second annual Gather Round got underway on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval, when the determined Demons defeated the Crows by 15 points after the Crows lost their first games to Gold Coast, Geelong, and Fremantle.

Adelaide, a team that had clear playoff aspirations going into the season, is still without a win in ’24 and is perilously positioned in 15th place on the standings.

After the game, Nicks spoke with the reporters and vented his frustration at his team’s inconsistent play.

“We’re all just so damn frustrated,” Nicks said in the opening.

“There are moments when we appear so disconnected from the principles of execution and decision-making, and there are others when we catch glimpses of who we know we can be.

“So, right now, it’s at the point of frustration.

“I thought we were in the game for the most part, but we weren’t playing well at all. We played a very good side.”

The formidable Crows from the previous season started Gather Round with a victory over Carlton, scoring eight goals in the first quarter, but they were only able to score eight goals in the Demons’ loss.

Though Thursday night’s play rarely resembled the daring decision-making and lightning-fast ball movement Adelaide was occasionally capable of last year, Nicks found some comfort in the realization that some of his team’s core values had shown up for the first time this year.

“A system that we haven’t seen in the first three rounds is what we did have right,” Nicks stated.

We’ve improved a portion of our game from the previous year, but regrettably that also revealed other areas of our execution, and our ball handling appears really awkward.

And that can occasionally result from a lack of trust in one’s position within the group as well as some pressure to move from 0–3 to 0-4.

That’s where the dissatisfaction lies in our current ability to play the way we want to; at times, we appeared incredibly slow with the ball, which is not who we are. That occasionally seems out of form.

Nicks mentioned that several members of his playing group weren’t ready for the start of the next campaign, but he didn’t name them.

“We now have too many players who aren’t playing at their best, which can affect your transition and a section of play where you appear menacing and dangerous. Then, suddenly, someone will decide to do something that wasn’t necessary for the game at that particular juncture.

We must work through it, regain our confidence to the extent that we know it is capable of, assess our team from a selection perspective, and align players with positions where they can play.

Nicks, who signed a two-year contract extension in late March, stated on Monday night that the Crows were “in a dark spot” as a team.

Nicks said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, “Unfortunately, we’re finding ourselves back in a spot where we were probably six to twelve months ago.”

“Unfortunately, there are a few little errors that we’re making, which may give the impression that the game is far off. Thus, there is work for us to accomplish in that area.

“You’re never that good and you’re never that bad,” I’ve said the entire time, and regrettably, we’re “not that bad” right now.