[1] He was recruited from the West Adelaide Football Club to the Sydney Swans with the 21st selection in the 1994 AFL Draft.

[2] Nicks made his Australian Football League debut in 1996 for the Sydney Swans and played a total of 175 games over the next 10 seasons.

His second last game was the round 10, 2005 match against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in which the Swans came under severe scrutiny from the AFL, in particular from then-CEO Andrew Demetriou and Network 10 commentators Stephen Quartermain, Tim Lane and Robert Walls, over their performance.

[13][14][15][16] Due to a variety of reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the club entering a rebuild at his arrival, and the lack of experienced assistant coaches at Adelaide, the Crows under Nicks slumped to a 0–13 start to the 2020 season, leading to Nicks being called “the least supported coach” in Adelaide’s history.

[17][18] He won his first game as Adelaide Football Club senior coach when the Crows defeated Hawthorn by 35 points in round 15, 2020.