Last year's minor premiers, who exited the finals in straight sets - including suffering a qualifying final loss to Collingwood - the Crows entered 2026 with a point to prove.
A six-goal third quarter from Adelaide set up a 13.15 (93) to 11.13 (79) win, after the Crows withstood a late fightback in front of 62,482 fans at the MCG on Saturday night.
"Some weeks you have a win and it's a nice grind. This one felt really good," Nicks said after Adelaide's first MCG win over Collingwood since 2014.
"From our point of view, we're sick of losing to them. And I mean that from a respect point of view, they're a very good side, and they've had the wood on us.
"So to fight through like we did tonight and show that we're still developing, we're still getting better, is a really good sign.
"That's a big stage out there. There's a period of time where the chant went up, the Collingwood chant - all things that we planned for, all things that we expected.
"And our guys were able to knuckle down in that moment and a number of moments following that and just get the job done."
In the second term, Nick Daicos racked up 15 disposals and kicked 1.2 as Collingwood snatched the lead, before Darcy Fogarty put Adelaide up by three points at halftime.
Surprisingly, Daicos started the decisive third term on the wing and Adelaide kicked five of the next six goals to get out to a 37-point lead that decided the match.
"That's just subtle little shifts - they do little deals and stuff, just for certain times of the game," Collingwood coach Craig McRae said when asked about the positioning of Daicos, but later conceded he would look at the tape.
The Magpies cut the margin to 12 points in the final term, but Adelaide responded and steadied to seal four points.
Without skipper Darcy Moore (hamstring), an undersized Collingwood defence battled against Adelaide big men Riley Thilthorpe (three goals), Darcy Fogarty (two goals) and Taylor Walker (six marks).
Adelaide's exceptional Wayne Milera (34 disposals), Josh Worrell (27 disposals) and Alex Neal-Bullen (27 disposals) excelled.
Nick Daicos finished with 33 disposals, two goals and 725 metres gained, while Dan Houston (32 disposals, 11 marks) was superb.
Lachie Schultz, Roan Steele and Jamie Elliott kicked two goals apiece.
"I just said to the players I feel like we were pretty average tonight," McRae said.
"I felt like parts of the game got away from us."
Adelaide host the red-hot Western Bulldogs next Friday, while Collingwood (1-1) have the bye.
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