Yesssss welcome to the 2026 Coaches Series on Footy & Friends!

Thanks to our great friends at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Tackle Your Feelings⁠⁠⁠⁠, we've been bringing you an episode with a current AFL coach for the past few weeks. This week we have the Matthew Nicks from the Adelaide Crows.

Like many coaches, Nicks' AFL journey began on the field, where he played 175 matches for the Sydney Swans from 1996 - 2005 under the likes of Ron Barassi, Rocket Eadge & Paul Roos. He also played alongside stars of the game including Adam Goodes, Brett Kirk and Barry Hall at the Swans.

His coaching journey in the AFL began as an assistant with Port Adelaide five years after his playing career finished, and he later moved up to Sydney as an assistant with GWS before landing the Adelaide Crows head job ahead of the 2020 season.

After four years of missing finals under Nicks, the Crows came from nowhere to finish as minor premiers in the 2025 AFL season before disappointingly exiting the finals in straight sets.

It's a big year coming up for the Crows and Nicksy, and it was an awesome opportunity to sit down and chat about life, coaching and everything in-between with the great man before the season kicks off. Thanks again to Tackle Your Feelings & the AFLCA for making it happen.

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Andrew McQualter

⁠Michael Voss⁠

⁠⁠Luke Beveridge⁠⁠

⁠⁠Sam Mitchell⁠⁠

⁠⁠Adem Yze⁠⁠

⁠⁠Dean Cox⁠⁠

⁠⁠Adam Kingsley