Source :- THE AGE NEWS
In their slow and steady rebuild from the AFL cellar in 2020, Adelaide have been blessed by top-level leadership that is clear-headed but not too interventionist.
Chair John Olsen, chief executive Tim Silvers and football directors Mark Ricciuto (until last year), Neil Balme and James Gallagher have generally made the right moves around when and when not to get involved in their football department.
Broadly, this approach has been based on the view that mistakes are fine to make, so long as they aren’t repeated.
That meant the flashy but ultimately unsuccessful team of 2023 and an overcorrection of game style in 2024 were accepted in context, provided that adjustments were made. For coach Matthew Nicks, that meant the addition of seasoned ex-Brisbane Lions assistant Murray Davis at his right hand for 2025, in parallel with annual improvements to the playing list.
After Adelaide claimed the minor premiership last year, a straight-sets finals exit was uncomfortable watching for the club’s executive and board, but ultimately absorbed as a first tilt at finals in nearly a decade. So long as improvements came in 2026.
Right now, Olsen, Balme and company have a conundrum before them. Last round’s home loss to Collingwood, the same opponent who beat up the Crows in a final at Adelaide Oval last September, was of the kind to cause more discussions and phone calls among the club’s top decision-makers than usual.
Not because of the ugly booing of Isaac Quaynor, nor because of Adelaide’s current ladder position. Instead, brows were a little more furrowed by the fact of repeat mistakes becoming increasingly evident for the Crows this year.
If Adelaide are to improve in 2026, by winning a final or two, they need to show more tactical aptitude and mental toughness against the top sides regularly. The current evidence is not promising.
Yes, they beat the Pies in round one at the MCG, in part by using possession “game management” tactics to wrest momentum. But a trio of subsequent defeats to the Bulldogs, Geelong and Fremantle suggested problems still lingered, and put the club in a position where they needed to play catchup on the AFL ladder.
More recently, having done the requisite catching up, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Collingwood have exposed a brittleness under quality midfield pressure, compounded by what senior figures at the club believe to be a fear of failure that constrains the team from playing with freedom when most needed.
Adelaide clearly tried to save the game against Collingwood after establishing a 26-point lead in the second quarter. The Pies, recognising their moment and emboldened by a fine record against the Crows, took full advantage.
Seasoned observers of the game and the club saw how Adelaide froze under Collingwood’s renewed pressure. Their free-flowing game, spectacular at its best, disappeared in the face of a run of Magpies wins at the contests, while Nicks looked powerless to stem the tide.
What’s evident is both a fear of failure and a fear of taking risks. Only Nicks can answer how much of that is coming from the coaches box rather than the players themselves. But the statistical evidence suggests at least a combination of both.
Adelaide rank in the league’s bottom few for handballs and for handball metres gained. They are hesitant to use those hand skills, even though when they do, the results are startlingly good: In games where they handball more than 150 times, the Crows are 6-1 this year.
The safe and wide methods Nicks tends to prefer, leading to statistics like Dan Curtin getting 18 of his 23 disposals last week near the boundary, are not going to hurt the best sides. Nor are team set-ups that call for the inclusion of four talls, as Adelaide had last week, allowing Collingwood the chance to run them off their legs.
Speaking of legs, Adelaide have also contended with a fresh round of soft tissue injuries this year, following the exit of fitness expert Darren Burgess to Juventus, who was replaced by ex-Port Adelaide high-performance boss Ian McKeown. Recurring hamstring problems for rebounding defenders Wayne Milera and Mitch Hinge have been particularly damaging. Then there’s Brisbane recruit Callum Ah Chee, who has played just four games this year due to hamstring trouble after playing a key role in the Lions’ dual premierships.
Fear of failure has always been a big factor in the story of the Crows, perhaps going some way towards explaining why a club with all the resources in the world and a captive audience in a genuine football state hasn’t won a flag since 1998.
As a big organisation purporting to be the “team for all South Australians”, the Crows have always tended towards the risk-averse. On the odd occasions they have taken risks that went bad – think Nigel Smart’s fire walk, the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal or the pre-season camp fiasco after the 2017 grand final defeat – the blowback has been enormous. Attendances, sponsorship dollars and the club’s good name matter.
But if a team is going to emerge from the pack and win finals, or even a grand final, they need to get comfortable with risk, and with surprises. Adelaide’s two premierships were not won by a coach as sturdy as Neil Craig, but by the mercurial Malcolm Blight.
Nicks has built strong relationships and trust with the players, an accountable team culture and arguably the best tackling side in the league. And while there is currently no question around the job security of Nicks, who is under contract until the end of next year, that may well change with another rapid finals exit.
Games against Essendon, Richmond, Fremantle and GWS round out the season, but little will be proven either way until September. Davis, as it happens, is one of the final four candidates to be the next coach of the Bombers. His promotion to senior coach of the Crows is another option.
In the film Chariots of Fire, the actor playing Harold Abrahams intoned that “I’ve known the fear of losing – but now I’m almost too frightened to win”.
Abrahams did manage to find it within himself to go for broke, winning the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Paris Olympics. The question for Nicks and his bosses is whether the Crows can do the same this year, or will failure force a change of leadership for 2027.
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.
