Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson says “disappointment” has been the overriding emotion since the Crows’ one-point loss to Sydney on Saturday night.
After trailing by 32 points at three-quarter-time, the Crows roared to life in the final term and looked to have taken the lead when Ben Keays snapped at goal with 80 seconds remaining.
But the shot was called a behind - in what the AFL later revealed was a mistake - and Adelaide lost by the slimmest of margins, ruling it out of finals contention.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Dawson said it was a tough pill to swallow.
“It has been a little bit of time now (since the game) and I think disappointing is the one thing that comes to my mind upon reflection,” Dawson said.
“At the end of the day you would never want to leave it up to the last minute of the game, and unfortunately we put ourselves in the position of not being in front of the game at that stage.
“The whole group was pretty flat (after the game), in that moment sitting there in the rooms and knowing your season is done, it is a tough pill to swallow.”
While the controversial ending took the headlines, Dawson said the goal umpire’s decision was not the reason the Crows lost the match, and highlighted the slow start that saw them trail by 44 points midway through the second term.
“(The result) stems from the first half, we didn’t play the way we wanted to play and to the conditions,” Dawson said.
“I thought Sydney were very good as well, and put us in a position where we were down and needed to kick six goals in the last quarter to win, and I’m proud of how we came back and put ourselves in a position to win.
“While the process of the goal or non-goal was disappointing, I think the way we played early on put us in the position where the result had to come down to that.
“We want to show our disappointment, but don’t want that umpire to think he has cost us the season, because there have been lots of games this year where we have been in a position to win and cost ourselves through our own errors.”
The Crows will be forced to lick their wounds and front up for one final match of the season against West Coast at Optus Stadium this Saturday night.
Dawson said it was crucial the group stay focused on the task at hand and finish the campaign on a high.
“You’ve just got to move on and West Coast had a good win yesterday, so it’s going to be a tough challenge for us heading over there this weekend,” Dawson said.
“It’s super important that we finish the year off well and head into the off-season with confidence that our best footy does stack up with the best.
“We know we’ve improved so much over the last year and a bit, and the challenge for us is to keep getting better and learn from the experiences we’ve had this year.”
