As anticipation grows for Adelaide's hopes of a return to the finals this year, Crows coach Matthew Nicks says the club isn't taking notice of external hype about a potential rise up the ladder in 2025. 

And the coach, who heads into his sixth season at the helm of the club, is taking the pressure head-on in a crunch year.

The Crows haven't made the finals since their Grand Final season in 2017, but after going through the deep reaches of an aggressive rebuild, are coming out the other side.

An off-season that led to them landing three ready-to-go mature players – Melbourne's Alex Neal-Bullen and GWS pair Isaac Cumming and James Peatling – has heightened hopes for a return to September.

But Nicks, in an expansive interview with AFL.com.au as part of the Your Coach series, said the Crows' start to 2024, when they lost five of their first six games following a promising end to the previous season, meant they were keeping their focuses sharp rather than circling a finals berth. 

"To be really open and honest about it, we haven't discussed it at all. It's probably through some of our learnings from last year and our want to embrace that expectation and so on and we lost our way a little and it became really tough after a poor start to the year for different reasons," Nicks said.

"We got some things wrong when it came to our performances, we had some injuries to some really crucial and key players early in the year and it put us on the back foot.

"This year, through that experience, we are really trying to narrow our focus on that first round. We play St Kilda in Round One.

"I'd be very interested to see how many of our players know who we play round two. That's where we try to keep it. We've done that very deliberately in that that's all we've focused on. We've got to get ourselves right for that game. That's where we're at."

The intended approach to channel all attention to the start of the season rather than hopes for the end of the year is similar for Nicks himself, who enters his sixth season as Adelaide coach pushing to end the club's finals drought.

Contracted until the end of 2026 after penning a two-year extension at the start of last season, Nicks is aware of the focus that will come on his position.

"I'm very lucky, I've got a board that have been amazing for me over the five years that I've been here and part of that reason we've been so tight is our understanding that our communication has been ongoing. I know exactly where things sit," he said.

"It will be a challenging year. I think a lot of the external expectation is that we perform and we should be playing finals footy. I can't hide from that fact that in your sixth year as coach there's an expectation from outside that that's the case. I know where the board sit, they know where I sit, and we'll just work our way through the year. We're looking at St Kilda right now, just like our players." 

Nicks said he understood the pressure, as Adelaide hopes to start the season with a bang after its 0-4 opening to 2024. 

"Of course. That's the industry I've chosen to be in. I've spoken in that context the entire way through. People say how do you handle the pressure? Well, I wouldn't be in the industry if I didn't like pressure," he said.

"I played in the industry, got out, got into stockbroking because it was as close I could find with the ups and downs and you don't want to lose people money. Believe me, it's not fun.

"But then I had to get back in because I loved it, I loved the team component first and foremost. But there's got to be a part that pressure is actually enjoyable if you embrace it or you're able to work through it and have success. There's no feeling like it." 

As well as the Crows' trio of trade and free agency acquisitions, they boosted their list with No.4 pick Sid Draper, who is expected to feature prominently in his debut season. The club has also enjoyed a healthy run of fitness over the pre-season, with only Kieran Strachan (foot) currently unavailable for the start of the season.

Max Michalanney dislocated his thumb in last week's internal trial and will not feature against Port Adelaide on Friday for the club's first practice game.

Nicks recognised the increased expectations around Adelaide as a finals threat as credit for a long-haul rebuild starting to bear fruit.

"When you hear about it and the talk's positive you know you've done some stuff right as a footy club, and we should be proud of that. From a list management point of view, we've been very deliberate the last five years about how we go about it," he said.

"It hasn't been about fixing it overnight and sticking a Band-Aid on. But it's about getting this right because sustained success is what we're after, not just one year of maybe up and around it. 

"That can be frustrating at times for people involved and our supporter base but I think the rewards that will come off the back of that will be well worth it, especially for our supporter base that has stuck by us and been through some tough years. I think it's really a part of digging in and becoming a member of a footy club, that you're there for the good and the bad."