Adelaide's loss to Greater Western Sydney on Saturday night ended its finals chances for 2018 with coach Don Pyke saying the match was the perfect snapshot of its season.
The Crows dominated at times in the first half but failed to
Last year's grand finalists now sit in 12th spot on the ladder with a record of 10-10 for the year, with two games remaining.
Pyke was honest in his appraisal of his club's substandard year post-match.
"We came into the season with high expectations and hopes, and to not be participating in September is a real kick in the guts for all of us," he said.
"It's disappointing, that’s the reality for us, and it's disappointing for our fans and members.
"You finish where you finish in this comp for a variety of reasons and we haven't been good enough for long enough against the best teams this season.
"We now get an opportunity to go away and do something about it, and we'll do the work in the off-season and get ourselves back.
"I've still got magnificent belief in our group of quality young men, who are good players, but we just haven't been able to get that synergy we had last year.
"We walk away disappointed."
Pyke said he hadn't thought about recruiting or how to handle the next fortnight before the loss to GWS because he went to Canberra confident they could win.
"We'll go to work on those sorts of things in the next six weeks or so, there's some time until the draft and we have our list assessment to go through as well," he said.
"We'll identify some areas we'd like to bolster our list but it's too early to tell.
"We came here to win a game to keep moving forward so we'll assess all that in the cold light of day."
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One positive to come out of the loss to GWS was the form of defender Brodie Smith, who starred in his second game back from a knee reconstruction.
Smith had 29 possessions against the Giants and showed his usual dash from the back half.
"I'm just rapt for Brodie to come back and play AFL footy this season like he wanted too, and to play like he did was another positive step for him," Pyke said.
"We know the quality of the player he's an All Australian half-back who has played some brilliant footy for us.
"He was really diligent with his rehab and his recovery and not only got himself right with his knee, but his fitness and his strength and everything else.
"It's a real credit to him."
