{"id":25193,"date":"2026-06-05T03:48:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25193\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T03:48:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:48:25","slug":"afl-2026-matthew-nicks-post-match-press-conference-jordan-dawson-emotional-video-adelaide-win-over-geelong-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/25193\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Matthew Nicks post-match press conference, Jordan Dawson emotional video, Adelaide win over Geelong, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide finally claimed the big scalp it needed to quiet criticism about its stop-start season with Thursday night\u2019s one-point thriller against Geelong in a game Jordan Dawson starred<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But Matthew Nicks knew his side was good all along.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The injury-hit Crows held on for a gutsy one-point win against the Cats at Adelaide Oval to halt a run of six losses against Chris Scott\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was their third one-point win of a season that has also featured four frustrating losses of nine points or less against quality opponents that cast doubt on Adelaide\u2019s finals credentials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all going to want to talk results, and it\u2019s obviously nice to finish on this side,\u201d Nicks told reporters after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve played so many games against them that have been tight, so to get a (win) is really pleasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeelong has been such a great side for so long, I think it\u2019s 2021 the last time we beat them, but for me, it\u2019s more about the way we did it, the way we got it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeep down I just know how good we are, and it\u2019s hard sometimes to sort of walk in here and talk to that, but I will today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys executed under immense pressure, and I\u2019m incredibly proud of the way they went about it, and they deserved the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Responds to glaring AFL issue | 07:33<\/p>\n

\u2018HAVE TO BE BETTER\u2019: Wild Smith moment under fire<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018THEY\u2019RE NUFFIES\u2019: Scott responds to fan exchange, calls out AFL over glaring issue<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018GETTING REALLY AGGRESSIVE\u2019: Crows eyeing FOUR stars in mega bid for multimillion-dollar trade splash<\/a><\/p>\n

Dawson was the driving force of the impressive performance and shrugged off a bruising blow to a hip in the third quarter to play a vital role late in the victory that moved Adelaide to a 7-5 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a warrior, he\u2019s not the only one, but incredibly he just kept going,\u201d Nicks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a brief chat, it might have been three quarter time, about how he might be best forward, and he said, \u2018Give me five minutes (on the ball)\u2019 and he did an unbelievable job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a collision, but probably one that doesn\u2019t surprise me, it doesn\u2019t surprise us, that\u2019s why he\u2019s our captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur group has worked on that scenario so often that they were just so well drilled at the end, and that\u2019s the pride piece that comes in because you watch them get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll take a hell of a lot of belief from this because of the way we went about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson finished with 22 disposals, three goals and nine tackles to continue his brilliant season as the sixth-highest rated player in the AFL.<\/p>\n

The Crows skipper was seen in an emotional state as he walked off Adelaide Oval on Thursday night, having bravely battled recent tragic family circumstances with the death of his brother.<\/p>\n

An emotional Jordan Dawson post-match.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the more remarkable individual seasons what he\u2019s done in every game he\u2019s played this year, but the emotional toll that he is carrying,\u201d Saints great Leigh Montagna said on Fox Footy post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo still come out and perform and lead his team the way that he has \u2026 it has been incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmazing that so many people have done their All-Australian mid-year teams and not many had Jordan Dawson in it. He\u2019s an absolute lock.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis leadership was on display tonight with his courage. Even some moments might not have been captured \u2013 when Geelong had the set play from a kick in and they opened it up to (Mark) Blicavs, he was the one who came forward to get the fist in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was this Bailey Smith penalty too harsh? | 01:57<\/p>\n

Kangaroos legend David King declared it was \u201cas good a game as you\u2019ll see\u201d from Dawson.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at this season \u2013 five times he\u2019s been in the top four rated players on the ground and the other three prior to tonight he\u2019d been six or seventh. He\u2019s been amongst the best every week,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, when you had to have it, he was huge. He stepped up when it was required.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win came at a cost with Callum Ah Chee (hamstring) and Jordon Butts (calf) unable to play out the game.<\/p>\n

Ah Chee played an instrumental role, shutting down Geelong playmaker Tom Stewart, but faces another stint on the sidelines after suffering his fourth hamstring injury since switching from Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really important job, and we said, \u2018Guys, just trust that Cal\u2019s going to get it done, he\u2019ll be where he needs to be at the right times\u2019,\u201d Nicks said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a full tag, it was just enough respect and attention because of how good Stewart is.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019ll miss that, hopefully not for too many weeks, hopefully it\u2019s a minor injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really tough for him because the first thing he says about it is that he doesn\u2019t want to let the group down, that\u2019s the sort of person he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really confident we\u2019ll get that right, and he\u2019s going to be super important for us in the latter part of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide finally claimed the big scalp it needed to quiet criticism about its stop-start season with Thursday night\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,404,23258,22939,3951,23254,23262,23256,23261,406,10029,23162,5357,23259,23263,6799,9233,525,23252,7380,539,23159,23251,23253,5356,376,23257,23167,23260,14371,23255,23168],"class_list":["post-25193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-brilliant-season","tag-chris-scott","tag-david-king","tag-emotional-toll","tag-emotional-video","tag-fan-abuse","tag-finals-credentials","tag-fox-footy","tag-game-press-conference","tag-glaring-issue","tag-hamstring-injury","tag-image-sums","tag-instrumental-role","tag-james-peatling","tag-jason-phelan","tag-jordan-dawson","tag-kangaroos-legend","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-matthew-nicks","tag-multimillion-dollar-trade-splash","tag-one-point-thriller","tag-one-point-win","tag-post-match-press-conference","tag-press-conference","tag-pride-piece","tag-smith-moment","tag-stop-start-season","tag-tom-stewart","tag-tragic-family-circumstances","tag-wild-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}