“The Game Was Right Where We Wanted It” - Nicks Rues Adelaide’s Missed Chance

Nine minutes into the third quarter, the Swans had closed the 23-point Crows’ lead at the 20-minute mark of the second quarter to just two points.

17 minutes into the third quarter, Adelaide led Sydney 9.6.60 to 6.8.44.

After goals to Fogarty and Soligo, it looked like the Crows had righted the ship; they had re-established a 16-point lead. Then the Swans came, and they came hard. Spearheaded by Joel Amartey, they piled on 10 goals to one, and ran out comfortable 42-point winners.

“The class definitely came through in the end,” Matthew Nicks began on Saturday night, noting the difference between his team and the Swans.

“I thought we pushed and pushed. The game was pretty even, it was in the balance, but in a way, we actually got to the point where we had some momentum, with maybe seven odd minutes to go in that third quarter. They went to another level, and we didn’t go with it.

“We know where we need to be better,” Nicks said

“It’s consistency, because you can see the level we can play at. Tonight we took a game where we leading for a period of time, but it’s not good enough to do it for two-and-a-half quarters.

“The last quarter, as I mentioned, we opened it up, played a way we haven’t played during the game. We wanted to try and win the game of footy.

“The end of the third quarter is the most disappointing, it was contest. They beat us to every 50-50 ball. They beat us on the ground, in the air, they beat us in the ruck, centre bounce, again, we gotta get better.”

The Crows have struggled to stop opposition momentum all season, and the Swans game was no different;

“It comes back to those key moments, we’re getting things wrong,” Nicks stated.

“It’s important we don’t talk about one moment, where a player does something after the play and they get another shot at goal. That’s the example on steroids where the focus is not where it needs to be.

“They really did put us away. The ball was in our back half and Amartey goes to work, he’s at the end of their contest work. I think he kicked five goals in the last 10 minutes.

“There were moments where we weren’t combative enough, when they took it to another level.

“They have an ability to take their game when needed. They’ve done it all season.

“Disappointing for us, because we pushed them and took the game where we wanted.

“In the end, we get into the last quarter and we get three or four goals down, we’re not here to lose by three or four goals. We’re here to try and win.

“We opened the game right up trying to take them on, and it was like pouring petrol on them. They are a very good side.”

Adelaide now have a bye, before taking on GWS at home on the 29th of June. Matthew Nicks believes the bye has come at the right time;

“We get a chance now to reset,” he said.

”We’ve just played 14 games in a row, so we’ll take a bye and we need it. Our guys are looking forward to that physical and mental break. This is our first [bye], some had two.”

Sydney are one of the teams that have had two byes. Matthew Nicks touched on that;

“Yeah. They looked quite fresh.”

Nicks also mentioned the extra scrutiny the club is under and how it’s affecting his players;

“They’ve handled it quite well from what I can see. Inside the four walls, it’s business as usual.

“We’re working hard to be better a footy team. I guess the environment remains a positive environment. We want to keep it that way.

“We believe there are areas that are positive, but we acknowledge and understand that we have to be a lot better.

“That doesn’t mean we are going to drop our bundle, as I said, the season still has a fair way to go.

“We hate losing, similar to our supporter base that want to come and watch a team win. They want to be entertained.

“We know the journey that we’re on and we’re sticking to it. At this point though, if you look at the last month of footy, we haven’t been at the level we were earlier in the season.

“I thought behind the ball we held up pretty strong. They were dominating us inside 50 in that first quarter. Some of that was where the ball was coming from as well, it gave our defenders the best chance. It was part of the plan going in.”

Nicks was quick to talk about how his team fought individually through “really tough” matchups. He mentioned Max Michalanney’s battle with Chad Warner explicitly;

“I thought he [Michalanney] fought really well and hard through that. We felt there was an important part to today, Chad Warner’s a very good footballer, we felt like a little bit of attention there would help us.

“I thought around the footy he was a real positive early. We really like the way Max plays his footy, he’s a competitor. He’s shown that behind the ball. He’s played on some of the best players in the game as a defender. He continues to grow and add to his game. He has the ability to win one-on-one football. We will continue to look at Max in different roles for the team and try and get him around the football a little more.”

Michalanney finished with 16 disposals for the game, and held Warner well to half-time, the Swans ace restricted to just eight touches. However as the Swans lifted, so too did Warner. He finished with 20 disposals, two clearances and one goal.