Adelaide coach Don Pyke has praised his side's mental toughness for getting through a difficult week and claiming a valuable 22-point win against St Kilda at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The victory moves the Crows back to a positive win-loss ledger at 10-9 and keeps them in eighth spot with three games in the home and away season remaining.
The Crows were under the pump after losing four of their past five games, Pyke inviting players over to his house for pizza and beers in the aftermath of last weekend's loss to Carlton at the MCG to help lighten the mood.
"I was just proud of the playing group," Pyke said.
"It was a hard-fought win.
"It was a difficult week, in terms of some of the focus on the club and the playing group, but the togetherness of the group and committing to the way we wanted to play and getting it done.
"It probably wasn't our greatest performance, but it was a hard-fought win and we came here go get four points and we got them."
The Crows secured victory despite being down in several key indicators, losing clearances 42-31, inside 50s 53-46 and contested possession 140-138.
"Tonight, it was more the transition," Pyke said.
"St Kilda were winning some of the clearance ball and contested ball stuff, that's a couple of weeks in a row, we need to look at that and tidy that up because we gave away field position.
"I thought our transition was better.
"We were a bit more deliberate with our ball use, which allowed us to set up from transition."
The Crows had 116 short kicks compared to just 44 long kicks, going sideways and backwards that drew the ire of sections of the crowd of 39,984.
"It was a bit of what the game presented," Pyke said.
"We were probably guilty of going across and not going as forward as often as we want.
"You take what the opposition presents and they were defending stoutly down the line."
Focus now shifts to next Sunday's encounter with reigning premier West Coast in Perth.
Key defender Alex Keath is a chance to return after missing the past two games with ankle soreness to help combat the Eagles' tall forwards.
"Hopefully, that's the plan," Pyke said.
"We wanted to deload him for a couple of weeks and it will be interesting to see how he comes up when we start re-loading him from a training viewpoint.
"We're hopeful he'll come good."
Exciting youngster Darcy Fogarty is also expected to hold his spot ahead of experienced key forward Josh Jenkins after a solid performance, finishing with five inside 50s from nine disposals, five marks and a crucial goal late in the game from 55m out.
