Matthew Nicks feels “incredible frustration” after his Adelaide side slumped to a fourth straight loss to start 2024.
The Crows were decent in patches against Melbourne at Adelaide Oval but were ultimately not good enough in the eventual 15-point loss to open Gather Round.
Many saw the Crows as a finals contender this year, having only narrowly missed out in 2023, but they have kicked off the new campaign in contrary fashion with an unenviable record of 0-4.
Nicks likes some parts of his side’s game, but overall bemoaned the fact that their ball movement and use is well below what is expected at the elite level.
“Incredible frustration amongst all of us,” Nicks said when asked how he feels.
“We get glimpses of who we know we can be and then we have periods of time where we look so far off. Fundamentals, execution and decision-making.
“So frustration is where it sits at this point.”
The Crows found plenty of the ball, finishing with 56 more disposals (369-313) which led to more inside 50s (54-48), but could only conjure a score of 8.15.(63) to Melbourne’s 10.18.(78).
Nicks saw some positives in testing a quality side like the Demons, but was also left disappointed with their execution.
“We played a very good side and I felt we were in the game for the majority but not playing well at all,” he added.
“Although what we did have right was a system we hadn’t seen in the first three rounds. We got an area of our game back to where it was last year. Unfortunately that exposed some of our execution.
“Our ball use at the moment looks so clunky and that can come sometimes off a little bit of a lack of confidence in where the group sits, a bit of pressure that you’re under sitting at 0-4 now.
“That’s where the frustration comes in. Our ability now to play our way, we looked so slow with the ball at times, which is not us. Sometimes that can come off a lack of form.”
In 2023, the Crows were the highest scoring team through the home and away rounds by averaging 95.3 points per game.
It’s a stark contrast this year, dropping away to average 57 points per game in their four defeats so far.
Nicks suggested that as a collective his players are well short of their best, but is holding hope that things will soon click considering they’re getting their hands on the ball frequently enough.
“We’re not too dissimilar to where we were last year from a list point of view or the selected team,” Nicks said further.
“Unfortunately we’ve got a few that just aren’t at their best. We’ve got a couple of young guys who are.
“We’ll never give up.
“We’re 0-4 at the moment, but we’re in the process where we’re looking at how do we get our game back. I’m mindful that tonight was one of the most frustrating games for us to watch. However, we had some stuff in that which was right.
“We got back to our process or system of how we play footy. We’ve now got to do that, and we’ve got to find our form. We’ve got to find our decision-making, back ourselves in and take a little bit of that fear out of our game.”
The Crows, with their season teetering on the brink, next take on the unbeaten Carlton at Marvel Stadium next Saturday evening.