ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks says he’ll keep the faith in his players and refuse to overreact to a horror loss to rival Port Adelaide.
Nicks says he won’t “jump at shadows”, instead backing his players to respond to their shock defeat to the Power on Saturday night.
The sixth-placed Crows blew a chance to climb into the top four with a humbling 26-point defeat to the 15th-placed Power.
“We’re not going to lose ourselves in one game of footy, 60 minutes or 120 minutes of footy,” Nicks told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re going to trust our guys, that’s what we asked them to do with each other.
“So we’ll move forward and bring it this week.”
Adelaide players look dejected after a loss to Port Adelaide in round 16, 2026. Picture: Getty Images
Adelaide meets West Coast in Perth on Friday night with star Izak Rankine cleared to play after suffering an ankle and knee injury against Port.
“Izak has pulled up really well, which is a good result, considering watching it back,” Nicks said.
“He’ll be limited (at training) today, but he’s pretty much set to play.”
But All-Australian half-back contender Wayne Milera will miss a second consecutive game due to a hamstring strain.
Wayne Milera after round 13 between Adelaide and Geelong at Adelaide Oval, June 4, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos
Milera’s absence against Port compounded Adelaide’s midfield getting collectively smashed – the Power won clearances 46-22.
Port stars Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis won more clearances between them than the entire Crows team.
“We understand at the moment, it (clearances) is not our strength, it’s not our weapon,” Nicks said.
“But our guys have been doing a pretty good job in that. We find what we’re doing away from stoppage has been really strong, so we’ll balance the way we look at how we play in there.
“We also look at the opposition we came up against on the weekend, we ran into a red-hot Zak Butters, one of the best in the competition, Jason Horne-Francis was huge.
“We were nowhere near the level. And so we would back our guys to bring it back to the level that is going to make us competitive.”
Nicks said precocious talent Josh Rachele would be deployed more in the midfield against the Eagles, after spending recent weeks predominantly in attack.
And second-year midfielder Sid Draper was in selection discussions as the Crows seek to bolster their onball brigade.
