Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks insists he didn’t discuss his coaching future with club hierarchy before his breakthrough finals win.
Nicks banked the Crows’ first playoff win since 2017 with a stirring 22-point elimination final triumph against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.
The victory – Nicks’ first finals win in his seventh year at the helm – came amid reports he was facing the axe if Adelaide lost the game.
Nicks talked with Crows chairman John Olsen and chief executive Tim Silvers in the wake of the speculation, but said his contract wasn’t a topic.
“I’m contracted into next year,” he said after Adelaide’s 14.6 (90) to 9.14 (68) win over the Bulldogs.
“We don’t have a conversation about my contract or any of that.”
Nicks maintained it was “head down, go to work” amid the speculation about his future beyond this season.
“There wasn’t a need for a conversation anything out of the ordinary that we wouldn’t normally have,” he said.
“Other than a support that I had from our president, which is a regular conversation.”
Nicks, whose Crows travel to play Brisbane in a semi-final next Saturday night, said he understood the nature of the speculation.
“I have been around long enough to understand the industry and the narrative and why things come up about coaches,” he said.
“And we want what’s next – what’s the next big thing; who’s the best; who’s the worst.
“I understand how that works and we have worked in that space for a long time, so it was business as usual.”
And he said relief wasn’t the correct summation of his mood after the Crows booted the last four goals of the elimination final to down the Dogs.
Adelaide held a 19-point lead at three quarter-time but the Bulldogs hit the front by one point some eight minutes into the final term.
“The question was asked. We answered it,” Nicks said.
“Relief is not the right word.
“It’s more reinforcing the belief that I have in them (his players) and we have in them as a coaching group.
“We we believe in them. They they just need to believe in themselves – and you get that through moments like tonight.”
