ALTHOUGH "gutted" by his team's inability to play four quarters against Geelong, Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson says he is not in a position to make many changes ahead of the Showdown against Port Adelaide in nine days time.
The Crows' long injury list did not grow any longer on Thursday night but the coach said midfielder Rory Laird is the only realistic inclusion for round two. He admitted defender Brent Reilly was keen to play but he remained a long shot as he recovers from a shoulder reconstruction.
It means the Crows will have to find a lift from existing personnel ahead of a torrid early stretch that includes Port Adelaide and the Sydney Swans. Sanderson was pleased with two-and-a-half quarters of the performance and said he could not fault the team's effort.
But he said no team should ever be guilty of losing both the contested ball (135-149) and the tackle count (58-81).
"You have to win contested ball and that is nothing to do with anything except your ability to win inside the contest and probably (Joel) Selwood, (Steve) Johnson, (Josh) Caddy ... were a bit better than us around the contest when it mattered," Sanderson said.
Sanderson admitted that when Patrick Dangerfield put the Crows in front early in the final quarter he believed, for a brief moment, the momentum was shifting their way.
It made watching Geelong kick six consecutive unanswered goals even harder to stomach. The Cats outworked Adelaide said Sanderson and there was little he could provide in the way of explanation for why his team suddenly hit the wall.
"We probably spent a few too many tickets getting back into the contest," Sanderson said.
He said the performances of Eddie Betts – who kicked two goals – and James Podsiadly – who kicked one behind after missing a set shot – were hard to assess given the way the ball was delivered to them. However he did concede the forwards regularly led to poor positions on the ground.
"They [Podsiadly and Betts] were always outnumbered. Geelong rolled back pretty well," Sanderson said. "We didn't lower our vision often enough so we couldn't hit that lead up target. We bombed it often quite long so poor old Eddie and Pods were outnumbered. Sometimes (it was) two (defenders) v four (forwards) or two v five so we have to look to have a bit more composure with the footy."
He did not get carried away with the efforts of Sam Jacobs, who rucked well against Dawson Simpson, Hamish McIntosh and the substitute Mark Blicavs and he sung the praises of Jimmy Bartel rather than criticise whoever had let him drift away from the mob to kick three goals in the second quarter.
Instead Sanderson stuck, as he always does, to the basics.
"The way we played was just really poor in the fourth quarter," Sanderson said. "The numbers aren't pretty: minus 17 contested ball in the last quarter … and they out-tackled us. If you win contested ball you probably lose tackles but you should never lose both."
