Adelaide Coach Matthew Nicks says his side must get better at absorbing the pressure and handling the heat.

The Crows went down to Collingwood by 42 points at the MCG on Saturday, despite cutting the hosts’ lead down to 11 points midway through the second quarter.

Speaking to the media post-match, Nicks said the Magpies piled the pressure on the Crows and they failed to handle it.

“When you play on the MCG against a side that’s going to bring the heat, we let ourselves down in that space,” Nicks said.

“Early, I thought that it looked like the guys had come prepared well. I thought we moved the ball quite well, we had our opportunities.

“We had plenty of first-hand in stoppage, I think we lost the tackle count, something like minus 15 in stoppage which tells us we are coughing the ball up, missing handballs, fundamentals, things we work on week in, week out but that’s what happens under pressure.”

Nicks said his side’s slow and precise ball movement in the first quarter was executed well in parts of the game but then other aspects let it down.

“Our plan to come in was played out pretty well by the guys early and we weren’t able to then bring the contest,” Nicks said.

“Did we go a little slow at times? Yeah, that’s still a work-on, that’s a challenge for our group to keep working on what that looks like.

“I think we owned the first five or so minutes of the game.

“Fumbling the ball, missing handballs, it’s got to be a full-balanced game. It can’t be get one area right and not the other.

“We missed our opportunities when we had them and they went down and scored.”

Skipper Rory Sloane was subbed off as a precaution after experiencing some soreness in his adductor.

With a six-day break before the home Showdown against Port Adelaide, Nicks backed the high performance staff’s decision to remove Sloane from the match.

“It’s a bit of soreness in his abductor,” Nicks said. 

“He tried to push on. He was just working right throughout that third but in the end it was just getting worse and worse for him and we had no choice.

“That’ll be a challenge for us to see if we can get him right for the Showdown on Friday.”

Nicks said coaches would now look at the game against the Magpies closely upon their return to SA and quickly turn their heads to the Showdown.

“We know where we lost the game today,” Nicks said.

“If you don’t protect the footy and you don’t treat that footy like gold, you’re going to get hurt and they (Collingwood) did that today - a more experienced side came out and punished us for some of the mistakes we made.

“We move on to Showdown and give it everything we’ve got.”