ADELAIDE chief executive Tim Silvers has underlined the club's faith in Matthew Nicks becoming a "long-term and successful coach" for the club as it enters a key period of its rebuild.
After five seasons outside finals – including the past three under Nicks – the Crows are now aiming to "challenge for finals and challenge the best" after building their talent base.
Nicks is contracted until the end of 2024, with talks not yet underway to extend the coach, who weathered the early years of a savage rebuild and is now leading a competitive team.
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After the Crows banked their first win of the season with an impressive Showdown performance in round three, Silvers said he had confidence in the direction Nicks was steering the Crows on-field.
"[An extension] is not something we’re talking about at the moment, and we don't have a timeline," Silvers told AFL.com.au.
"But what I can say about Matthew Nicks is he is a terrific coach and he's got a great coaching group around him.
"Nicksy is in his fourth season, we think we're building a really good culture, and I'm confident he's going to be a long-term coach for the club."
The Crows, who face Fremantle at Adelaide Oval on Saturday, released their five-year strategic plan last month, identifying an AFL premiership by 2027 as a key objective.
A fourth AFLW premiership and sustained success, a membership tally of 100,000, and relocation of the entire club to a new home base by 2026 were other goals identified.
Silvers said targeting the club's third AFL premiership within that timeframe was a realistic goal that Nicks and the coaching team contributed to.
"He has the same goals and objectives, and I feel like we're really aligned. He is a great leader, he's ambitious, and together we want to achieve that," Silvers said.
"That would mean he'd be in his eighth year by then (2027), so hopefully he'll be a long-term coach and a successful coach by that time."
Nicks spoke ahead of the 2023 season about the shift in mindset at Adelaide this season and the strong belief the club now had that it could challenge the best teams.
The club won three games in its first season under Nicks in 2020 after extensive list cuts, before seven and eight wins respectively in 2021 and 2022.
"There comes a frustration after a number of years where it's just time to get the job done. It's time to step up," the coach told AFL.com.au on the eve of the 2023 season.
"It's quite enjoyable to go through that with the group when you know they're passionate."
Adelaide is preparing to launch Gather Round next week with a Thursday night clash against Carlton at Adelaide Oval.
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It will be the club's first Thursday night game since round 13, 2019, and its first marquee timeslot since the Friday night showdown against Port Adelaide in round two last season.
The AFL released another 2000 tickets for the sold-out match against Carlton on Wednesday, with that allocation exhausted within an hour.
Following its impressive win against the Power in last Saturday night's Showdown, the Crows have started lobbying the AFL for a primetime Thursday or Friday night slot for the round 20 rematch, which will be an Adelaide home game.
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