Adelaide Senior Coach Matthew Nicks will remain at the helm until at least the end of 2024 after signing a two-year contract extension.

The new deal reflects the Board and senior management’s strong belief that Nicks is the right coach to take the Club forward.

In his first two seasons at West Lakes, Nicks guided Adelaide to three wins in 2020 and seven this year while giving 18 players the opportunity to make their AFL debuts.

Crows CEO Tim Silvers said he viewed Nicks as a long-term coach after seeing significant progress on and off the field.

“There is genuine buy-in from the players, coaches and staff to the relationships and standards that Matt is driving,” Silvers said.

“His leadership style is exactly what we need when you consider the evolution of our playing group and he is forging a culture underpinned by people having a selfless approach.

“The connection goes well beyond the locker room and stretches to our administration, as well as our past players and officials, corporate partners, members and fans.

“There is no doubt it has been a tough initiation starting his senior coaching career at the same time as a pandemic but we have seen growth over the past two years.

“Improvement in a rebuild is not always linear and there are still challenges ahead but we remain committed to our plan and central to that is having Matt continue as Senior Coach.”

Nicks, who had one year to run on his current contract, was delighted to sign an extension which would allow him to build on the foundation that he and his fellow coaches had laid.

“The whole club is heading in the right direction and it stems from a willingness to work hard,” Nicks said.

“We have brought together the right people, from coaches through to high performance, medical and welfare staff, to create an environment where our players can reach their potential.

“Last season we showed glimpses of what we would like to produce consistently in the future and on the whole we saw a young group develop and make some ground on where we’re trying to get to.

“There was on-field growth from every player and the new guys we’ve brought in over the past few weeks are going to make us better.

“The players have come back to training in fantastic condition, they’ve put their heads down and gone to work in their break which gives the coaching group and myself great optimism for the future.”