Matthew Nicks has chosen humour as a tool to deal with the baying for blood that has characterised his elimination final preparations.
With the seventh-year coach still searching for a maiden September victory, reports surfaced that power brokers would move on from the popular figure if he fails to get the job done against the Western Bulldogs, at home, on Saturday night.
Interviewed by the Fox Footy broadcast ahead of that very game, Nicks spoke with a refreshing levity, when asked if he had to confront the speculation with his playing group.
“Not really," he said.
"Most players came and addressed it with me, and had a bit of a chat.
"There's a lot of things that come out...this is what goes on at this time of the year.
"It's understandable - everyone wants to get better. How do we get better? Everyone wants to change the coach - it seems to be the one way most clubs go.
"That's not always the best case - in fact in this one (cheekily referring to his own tenure), it's definitely not the best case. This coach is a gun and you should keep him!” he smiled.
Ahead of what might be, if rumours are to be believed, his final game in charge, Nicks vowed that his side would be up for the physicality of September football.
“We've seen it in the last three games - compete, enjoy, embrace the fight. We've been here all season; we talk about our way, or “Crows Way”, in the way we go about it," he said.
"Tonight's no different, we're not going to change that, but we do go back and have a look at why we're in the position that we're in at the moment. It comes off the back of us competing and enjoying that part of the game.
“We like to think we're here to take the game on. We've embraced that for the last couple of months, trying to tweak our game a little and bring a little bit more adventure into it.
"Our guys have done that well. Our last hit-out we had was probably as good as we've seen (ourselves) all year. It's a big challenge to do that against an opposition that's got themselves into finals like the Bulldogs have done. We'll have a crack, we'll have no fear tonight, and if it gets wet, we may need to tweak it a bit," he finished.
