Adelaide assistant Scott Burns has leapt to the defence of senior coach Matthew Nicks as questions continue to circulate over his future ahead of Saturday's elimination final against the Western Bulldogs.
Speculation swirled early in the week that while the Crows want to back Nicks, a third consecutive finals loss would spell the end of his tenure as the club looks to capitalise on its current list position.
Nicks is contracted for 2027.
"It's actually a real positive that we're talking about this now," Burns said.
"Because if you go back to five or six years ago, where we were as a football club – even when Nicksy came in, you talk about the camp culture, you talk about the COVID year, wooden spoon year – the place was in disarray, talking politely.
"The last four seasons ... we're top-four for offence and defence, so it's been a massive turnaround.
"So the speculation is actually a credit to Nicksy with what he's been able to do over his time here.
"What we've done is raise expectations, so it's a good position to be in compared to where we were four years ago."
Burns said the constant speculation doesn't feature inside the four walls, but understood the external chat.
"Nicksy summed it up pretty well: it's just part and parcel; it happens," he said.
"We've taken the journey now to be a consistent finals team, which is what we wanted to do. That's the first one ticked off.
"The next one is to obviously have success in the finals, and hopefully that's a journey that's going to be pretty exciting over the next two or three years for Adelaide supporters.
"Once again, let's just rewind a little bit and go back to where we were four or five years ago.
"There's a lot of clubs that would like to rebound as quickly as what we have ... but we've got to get it done in finals, and that's the next challenge."
