Adelaide defender Brodie Smith says the group is feeling “quite weird” about its 2023 season coming to an end at the weekend.
The Crows finished their campaign in tenth position on the ladder, a win-and-a-half shy of eighth spot and a chance to play finals footy.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Smith looked back on 2023 as a “what if season.”
“Even though that 40 degree day against the Giants in Round One feels like years ago, it does feel like the season has gone quick,” Smith said.
“The strange thing is that over the last few weeks we had been getting our heads around hopefully playing finals footy and what that might look like, so for everything to finish up now is quite weird.
“It’s a bit of a what if season I suppose, we certainly showed we were good enough to take it up to the top four sides, but unfortunately there were some opportunities we didn’t take and we are at the pub today instead of preparing for a final.”
Adelaide ended its campaign on a high, defeating West Coast by 45 points in front of an emotional Optus Stadium crowd on Saturday night, paying tribute to a trio of retiring stars in Luke Shuey, Shannon Hurn and Nic Naitanui.
Smith said it was an honour to share in the celebrations for the retiring greats and was proud of the way the Crows ground out a victory.
“We had the exact same situation (against West Coast) last year with Josh Kennedy (retiring),” Smith said.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a pretty tough week to get motivated for that game, but for us it was just an honour to be there playing that game which celebrated three guys we have a lot of respect for.
“It looked like they were going to get us done for a bit there, they were playing some inspired footy for those guys, so for us to put the foot down in that last quarter and finish the year strong was pleasing.”
As the off-season now begins, Smith said the missed opportunities from this campaign would serve as motivation for the group as they challenge themselves to become “great.”
“(How the season ended) will definitely be used as motivation moving forward,” Smith said.
“I’m a bit salty and a lot of the other boys are, so it’s going to be tough to see finals footy going around with the way the year finished.
“We probably look back at the games we lost by under a kick, and there were plenty of games we kicked more behinds than goals, which ultimately cost us.
“Where we are at as a group is we had a good year, but we want to be great and that will motivate us going into next year and beyond.”
