David King is adamant that the Adelaide Crows, under the guidance of Matthew Nicks, will be back on their feet sooner than many expect.
The Crows won just three games in 2020 in Nicks’ first season as head coach after stripping back their list following a subpar 2019 season.
Despite their struggles early in 2020, King firmly believes that with a clever rookie coach at the helm and an inexperienced yet talented list under his tutelage, the Crows will swiftly recoil.
King further explained why he believes Nicks, who cut his teeth with Port Adelaide and GWS, will emerge into an extremely high-quality coach.
“Without going too far, I think this guy is going to be a special coach, I really do,” King said on SEN Breakfast.
“His ability to understand ball movement. What works for you and what you need to take off the opposition. He did that at GWS through their finals and Grand Final campaigns. He was a huge loss to the Giants last year, a huge loss.
“I don’t think that can be underestimated. When you look at what he did in that back part of the year (in 2020), you just started to see that wave running of the Adelaide Crows all start to look in formation and these younger players in sync.
“They might not have success in terms of finals or Grand Finals for a few years but I’ve got no doubt they’ll take huge leaps.
“They’ll go from winning three games to five games to 10 games.
“It won’t be a long rebuild, it will be one of the quicker rebuilds.
“I like how he organises his teams and how he makes it easy for them to play and get involved.”
To provide further hope to an already exciting time, the Crows hold a very strong draft hand with picks 1, 9, 22, 23, 40 and 80 in next month’s AFL Draft.