THERE'S a binding contract Matthew Nicks agreed to late in 2019 when he was named Adelaide's senior coach. It is written in trust more than ink, but the terms and conditions remain the same as he enters his sixth season at the helm of the Crows.

And it is a deal that has nothing, really, to do with the Crows. Instead, it is an understanding from his tightest friends and oldest allies outside of the club that they will pull him up if they see a different side to him emerge whilst in the pressurised environment of being a head coach.

"We put that contract in place and it was more if I was becoming a dickhead the people who are closest to me, who know who I am as a person. If I'm losing my values or going away from my values then they were going to be there for me just have a quiet word in the ear to say 'Hey, you're behaving in a different way to who you really are'," Nicks told AFL.com.au this week.

"There hasn't been too many conversations needed to this point, but I wouldn't say there's been none."

One stands out in Nicks' mind.

"There weren't a lot of words spoken, it was just a quiet phone on the other end, and I knew exactly what was going on through that call. I was able to say 'Thank you' and we moved on and I got back to what I do value and that's team performance. Everything we do is about the team," he said.

The agreement between Nicks and his inner circle is pertinent heading into this season, where everything will be on the rise at West Lakes. The heat. The pressure. The expectation, noise and hopes. And, hopefully for Nicks, the Crows as well. There is plenty on the line. 

Adelaide has been through the depths of its aggressive list rebuild after the 2017 Grand Final. 

That remains its most recent final, a fact not lost on anyone at the club. After a promising 2023 season was nearly rewarded with a finals position – the goal umpiring controversy in round 23 all but ending that hope – last year Adelaide's campaign was nearly over before it begun. No wins from the first four games and only one in the first six. It was a big gap they couldn't make back.

Nicks says the Crows have improved over summer and with off-season additions Alex Neal-Bullen, Isaac Cumming and James Peatling, they are now the seventh most experienced list heading into the season. The build isn't over but it sure is closer. Will that result in a finals appearance for the first time in eight years and maiden finals series for the coach? Nicks said it wasn't the way the Crows were thinking.

"We haven't discussed any of that. It's not the language we use internally. If you start to look at that sort of thing you lose your way. We're focused on improving on last year, getting ourselves to another level," he said.

"We also have a clearer understanding of how close you can be yet how far away you can feel at times. We have an understanding that you can think you're there but you're not actually there. A lot of this stuff can be small narrow margins. We've put our heads down and gone to work.

"It's the tightest I've seen our group and occasionally I'll comment to other coaches or people in the organisation about some of the things we now take for granted in the way our players behave and what they value. I'm really proud of what we've built. It hasn't yet reflected in a win-loss column on weekends. 

"I see supporters out and about, and maybe I'm just running into the ones who are going to be nice to me, but I think most people see it. There's a feeling that we're doing a lot right."

Nicks spent the off-season digging into what he could be doing better, too. He spent time at NFL club Green Bay Packers and NBA team the Boston Celtics, and also undertook a leadership program at the esteemed Harvard University. 

"That was a course around empowering leaders and really understanding who you are, what's your purpose. I felt going into it I knew what my purpose was, it's just how do you verbalise that? And what sort of conversation can that open up with others when you do verbalise it?" he said.

"It was really powerful. It is quite an aura over there in the college and getting a feel for the people who are there. They're world changers."

Nicks is only looking for some minor changes for the Crows this year to take the next step. The midfield additions expands an on-ball line-up that now has Peatling, captain Jordan Dawson, Jake Soligo, Izak Rankine and more moving through it. Neal-Bullen brings experience and the important hard-working half-forward link, while Cumming's drive off half-back will be vital. 

Perhaps more crucially, Riley Thilthorpe and Wayne Milera missed most of last season with knee injuries and have returned strong pre-seasons, with Thilthorpe's seven games at the end of last year proving his importance to Nicks' Crows.

"Riley was an early pick for a reason. He was going to take time as a key position forward. It's that one position that is really tough, you're expected to stand under the ball, you've got some of the best defenders in the game who will come and play on Riley and punch him in the back of the head and you've got to be tough to be able to take that," he said.

"You've got to believe in yourself, so it took a few years for Riley, and some really strong coaching from our group, to get him to where he is at the moment. Now it's all Riley."

And then there's 'Sid the kid' – No.4 draft pick Sid Draper. Draper has been managed through his first pre-season with the Crows after an injury-hit draft year, but has shown his quick feet enough for Nicks to already be enamoured with what impact he can have in year one. Nicks said the South Adelaide product was "in the mix" for a round one debut against St Kilda, with the Crows' warm-up games against Port Adelaide on Friday and then Brisbane later this month to sort through how they start. 

The coach said seeing the Indigenous All Stars clash with Fremantle over the weekend had been a salient reminder of the importance of leg speed in the modern game, as the All Stars whipped the ball from end to end.

"When you've got speed – and he has it at the highest end, he would be one of the quickest I think we'll see – and you have a football intelligence, the game suits you. Sid's got both of those. There's always things we look at and we are working with him about his execution under pressure and ability to fend off ball, positioning at a stoppage. But if you look at all those things as a coach then you lose track of what they're actually really good at and the weapons that they bring," he said.

"We have 100 per cent belief that he can play at the level. The only concern is throwing him in that little bit too early. With Sid we just hope everything goes well for him over the next few weeks and he's able to show more of what he's got. I have no doubt he's ready, it's just we'll see how we go into round one."

The club has bolstered the Crows' coaching department by adding coaching director Murray Davis from Brisbane, and Nicks is aware the spotlight will be firmly on him through the year, having signed a two-year deal last season through to the end of 2026. 

"We play our best when we are in the moment. We play with a lot more freedom rather than trying to focus too far out. We did a fair of work last year on theming our year on what it was going to look like and we had a respect for the league because the league's so close," Nicks said.

"This year we've decided our approach and expectation is going to be that we focus on round one and we don't need to think any further than that."