ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig says his side has a long way to go before it can be considered a powerhouse of the competition.
On Saturday, the Crows bowed out of premiership contention in a successive elimination final.
Last year, the opponent was Hawthorn and this time they fell to Collingwood at home by 31 points.
Adelaide recovered from a slow start and kicked seven goals to three in the second quarter to earn a half-time lead, but was overrun by the persistent Pies in the second half.
Craig lamented another opportunity lost for his side.
"We’re a long way from being a power in the AFL, but we’re making some inroads in it," he said after the game.
"I think we made some steps last year and we’ll need to make some this year, but I don’t think we should kid ourselves about where we sit in the AFL as one of the 16 teams.
"We thought that game was winnable and I still think it was winnable. These opportunities are too hard to get [to waste]. You battle the whole year to get them.
"We went into half time two goals up and it was still obviously a strong game of footy, but after half time I just thought Collingwood bulldozed us and were too dominant.
"We were disappointed last year with our performance in the elimination final and we need to be disappointed with this game as well. Let’s not shy away from that.
"It was on our home ground and I just thought it was a general poor performance from us."
Adelaide's finals record under Craig now sits at two wins and five losses and he said the Crows would continue to battle hard to rectify it.
"We all understand that big reputations in this game are made in finals and we haven’t been able to do it yet, but that doesn’t mean we back off," he said.
"If you don’t want to be disappointed or experience the hurt that goes with it [finals] – don't even put yourself up.
"We just need to re-group, be pretty critical of ourselves in terms of the way we’ve gone about it and the way we need to go, and that’s me included.
"There’s only one way to fix it and that’s to get good enough to get back there and have another go."
Craig conceded Adelaide's forward line was too one-dimensional on Saturday and said the club had more work to do on its ball movement under pressure and structure in attack.
But he took time to acknowledge what had been an otherwise positive performance from his players this season.
"I’m full of admiration for our squad," he said.
"Whilst this is bitterly disappointing for our supporters and our club – and our players are disappointed – we've seen a lot of situations this year where I just know that this is a squad that wants to do really well and has some real fight about it."