{"id":583153,"date":"2026-04-03T15:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583153\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:51:10","slug":"matthew-nicks-round-4-press-conference-adelaide-crows-loss-to-fremantle-dockers-alex-pearce-smother-good-friday-video-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583153\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Nicks Round 4 press conference, Adelaide Crows loss to Fremantle Dockers, Alex Pearce smother, Good Friday, video, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has expressed he and the club are \u201creally angry\u201d at their inability to play to their best for a full four quarters, after their last-gasp two-point loss to Fremantle on Good Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The hosts flipped the marquee match on its head in the second half, coming back from 34 points down to shoot out to a 10-point lead with the home crowd in full flight.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But, in a Crows blow that proved the Dockers are up with the absolute best this season, Justin Longmuir\u2019s side kicked the final two goals of the match before a stoic final five minutes in defence was encapsulated by the winning smother from captain Alex Pearce.<\/p>\n

The result on Friday night is the Crows\u2019 third-straight loss by a margin of less than 10 points, after a one-goal loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 2<\/a> before an eight-point loss to Geelong last Thursday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists post-match, Nicks \u2014 a traditionally cool customer in the media \u2014 was borderline seething during the opening minutes of his Round 4 debrief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was deja vu, wasn\u2019t it? Three weeks in a row. What we\u2019re pretty clear on, is we can\u2019t allow our opposition the game on their terms like we\u2019re allowing in the first half,\u201d Nicks began.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working our way through the why … and it\u2019s pretty clear that the ability to execute it is the most frustrating bit at the moment. It\u2019s making us really angry that we\u2019re not able to get it done for four quarters.<\/p>\n

Stunner & smother save Dockers late! | 02:27<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing really good sides, which we\u2019ve done for a month, you get what you deserve … we got smashed at the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an ability to direct your focus and get it done, and we\u2019re not doing that at the moment \u2014 in really critical moments. You give sides like Fremantle that start, good luck. Unfortunately, we\u2019ve found ourselves on the wrong end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelaide was smoked at contested ball and clearance throughout the first half and was beaten by 16 at the final count in the former stat.<\/p>\n

It took a huge third term from James Peatling alongside a valiant effort from the likes of Josh Worrell and six-gamer Lachie McAndrew to keep the Crows afloat, but in reality the Dockers were a far more polished outfit that Nicks was willing to credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to be in a contest from five metres away. For whatever reason, our focus isn\u2019t where it needs to be in those key moments,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit to our opposition, led by (Andrew) Brayshaw, (Caleb) Serong and others, they\u2019re too good for you to give that sort of space. They were sharp, very sharp early, and we weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no finger-pointing. We\u2019re in a position where the outcome\u2019s 1-3 (win-loss record). That\u2019s not the issue; the issue is the process we\u2019re not getting right.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d like to think we\u2019ll get on top of that sooner rather than later, otherwise we\u2019re going to be sitting here with the same result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really disappointed for us, our football club … but at the same time, I\u2019m still so optimistic that we\u2019re good enough. We\u2019re batting deep at the moment, we\u2019ve got some guys not out there … (but) it\u2019s on us at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The home side had to do it tough without Darcy Fogarty (back) and Isaac Cumming (illness) withdrawing just an hour before the start of the match, temporarily joining the likes of Jordan Butts (concussion), Dan Curtin (knee) and Mark Keane (leg) on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Adelaide will have a six-day break before their Gather Round curtain-raiser against Carlton on Thursday night. Cumming is expected to return for the match, though doubt still surrounds Fogarty\u2019s availability at this stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks has expressed he and the club are \u201creally angry\u201d at their inability to play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[285619,9126,638,11292,64,63,55,639,54914,282774,1119,10124,24575,24270,2527,2522,10991,12126,285621,10400,285620,11234,14374,16712,668,285622,85,285618,117757],"class_list":{"0":"post-583153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-absolute-stunner","9":"tag-adelaide-crows","10":"tag-afl","11":"tag-alex-pearce","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-australian-football-league","15":"tag-australianfootballleague","16":"tag-dan-curtin","17":"tag-final-count","18":"tag-football-club","19":"tag-fremantle-dockers","20":"tag-home-crowd","21":"tag-home-side","22":"tag-isaac-cumming","23":"tag-james-peatling","24":"tag-josh-treacy","25":"tag-josh-worrell","26":"tag-journalists-post-match","27":"tag-justin-longmuir","28":"tag-last-gasp-two-point-loss","29":"tag-mark-keane","30":"tag-marquee-match","31":"tag-matthew-nicks","32":"tag-press-conference","33":"tag-smother-save","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-stoic-final","36":"tag-win-loss-record"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}