Matthew Nicks Round 16 v Port Adelaide: Five key takeaways

Adelaide fell to crosstown rival Port Adelaide by 26 points in Showdown 60 on Saturday night.

A run of six consecutive goals between the second and third quarter set up the win for the Power, who came away with a 13.19 (97) to 11.5 (71) victory at Adelaide Oval.

Crows Senior Coach Matthew Nicks spoke to the media after the game, and delivered five key takeaways.

Nicks reflects on “a really poor night”

Nicks admitted Adelaide’s performance in Showdown 60 was its worst for season 2026.

The Crows were comprehensively outplayed by their crosstown rival across the night, as Port Adelaide came out victorious in the vast majority of the key indicators from the match.

Nicks said the level of football his side produced was poor, and explained how he and the coaching staff would handle the result moving into next week’s trip to Perth to play West Coast.

“I think if we go purely numbers, we're gonna go straight into stoppage, but the bigger picture is it was just a really poor night, about as poor as we've been, unfortunately, this year,” Nicks said.

“There's a number of reasons why it was (our worst performance) one being our opposition credit, you’ve got to give credit where it's due.

“They tackled hard, they pressured, they brought a game that we'd been bringing for a month or so.

“It's interesting, thinking about how hard we dive into it. We got a short break into a Perth trip. Do we back the trend, which has been some pretty strong form for us, or do we spend time in this?

“I think the answer to that will be we'll move on pretty quickly, but right now it hurts, because as I mentioned, that's as poor as we'd been (all year).”

An update on Izak Rankine

Adelaide midfielder Izak Rankine came from the ground with a knee and ankle complaint after being caught in a tackle in the first quarter.

Rankine returned to the field and played the rest of the game, with Nicks unsure of the full extent of the injury.

“He managed to come back on and play it out. So it'll be one of those ones where we have to wait 24 hours and see how he pulls up,” Nicks said.

“I don't know the details yet, I haven't seen the doc, but fingers crossed.”

Losing control in the midfield

Adelaide was dominated in and around stoppage across the entire night according to its Senior Coach.

The Crows were unable to stop the class of stand-in Power Captain Zak Butters and livewire Jason Horne-Francis, as they led the home team to a dominant 42-22 clearance count.

Nicks said an inability to win the ball at the coalface made it difficult for his team to get any positive momentum going.

“When you're getting dominated out of stoppage, I don't know the exact number, but it was, it was dominated. Then you're playing the game from your back 50 and teams don't win from the D50,” Nicks said.

“There's a few reasons (why) I mentioned the opposition, I thought from a ruck point of view they were very strong tonight, (Jordan) Sweet was very good.

“On the ground they just seemed to have a little bit more speed and power than we did tonight. You can be off one or two per cent in this game and be made to look pretty average.

“Unfortunately, we were that tonight, so in an area that we've been able to get games on our terms this year at times, without diving into too much of it, our opposition were just too good for us.”

Copping a reality check

Nicks hoped the Showdown 60 loss would serve as a reality check for his side as it enters the last two months of the home and away season.

The Crows came into the clash against their crosstown rival on the back of three straight wins, with the performance an aberration from their recent formline.

“These things might be a blessing in disguise at times. These sort of losses can give you a little bit of maybe a reality check, or possibly just the jolt you need,” Nicks said.

“We will sit down in five or 10 minutes as a group, and we'll have a discussion. We'll probably review this game tonight in the next 30 odd minutes, and it may just be a couple of words from our captain.

“It may be a conversation we have to have for a little bit longer. I hope it's a short one. I hope the guys understand it, because it's pretty clear we didn't - we didn't bring a game tonight that's going to stand

“So hopefully that's the lesson we take out of it, and we don't do it again.”

Fogarty stands up in attack

One positive from the night was the efforts of Darcy Fogarty up forward, who booted a season-high five goals.

Nicks praised Fogarty’s ability to compete throughout the four quarters and admitted he played a lone hand in the front half.

“We (the coaches) did have that conversation during the second half, if there's something that comes out of it, we felt like he competed for us throughout the game,” Nicks said.

“It's a good sign for Darcy who's doing a lot of work, but you need more than one or two (having an impact).”

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