Adelaide midfielder Bernie Vince says his team is frustrated after losing another game from a winning position, this time against Collingwood at the MCG on Friday night.
The Crows started brightly, kicking six goals in the opening term to lead by 25 points at the first change. But led by Andrew Krakouer (three goals) and Ben Reid (two goals), the Magpies piled on seven goals to Adelaide’s two in the second quarter, taking a four-point lead into the half-time break.
The Pies kicked away to a 25-point lead midway through the third quarter, but two quick goals to young Crow Jarryd Lyons, who finished with a career-best four goals, brought the visitors within 13 points at the final change. Richard Douglas cut the margin to seven points with the first goal of the last quarter. The Crows, who had control of the play, had opportunities to draw nearer but couldn’t capitalise and the class of Collingwood came to the fore. Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan combined to kick three goals and steer the Pies to a 27-point win.
The defeat followed a heartbreaking loss to West Coast in the dying minutes at AAMI Stadium last weekend.
“It’s frustrating. We really set ourselves for this one, as we did last week, and again we just got done at the end. We’re just not quite good enough at the moment,” Vince said after the game.
“We haven’t won the close games this year. We beat the Kangaroos, but that was probably a one in a million result. It’s disappointing being in winnable positions and not coming away with the win and we’ve done that a few times this season.”
The Magpies won the midfield battle, finishing on top in the clearances, contested possession and tackles. Crows coach Brenton Sanderson described the centre square numbers as “ugly”, acknowledging Pendlebury (42 possessions and two goals) and Swan (31 possessions and two goals), had “got off the chain”.
“Their good players played really well, Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan,” Vince said.
“We touched on contested ball at half-time and we won that area in the third quarter, which allowed us to get back into the game, but the damage was done in the second term.”
Vince also lamented his team’s crucial skill errors after quarter time.
“They scored a lot of our turnovers. We actually scored a lot from their errors in the first quarter, but we couldn’t sustain that effort. Turnovers just kill you. We need players with composure under pressure,” he said.
Young Crows Rory Laird (22 possessions and four marks at 95.5 per cent efficiency), Jarryd Lyons (four goals), Brad Crouch (22 possessions, seven marks and seven tackles) and Tom Lynch (22 possessions, 11 marks and 4.1) were among the players to stand up under pressure.
“Lairdy has been awesome since he came into the team. It seems like he’s played 150 games. He’s very reliable and shuts his man out,” Vince said.
“Jarryd Lyons kicked four goals in his first game back in the team. Tommy Lynch kicked four and Crouchy was good again. These guys are all relatively new into our side.
“It’s great for them and it’s unfortunate we didn’t get the result because when they play well, more often than not it’ll go a long way to us winning.”
Vince recovered from a bout of concussion to finish with 21 possessions, six marks and five inside 50ms at 86 per cent efficiency.
“It was a different week. I didn’t do much training until Thursday. I had the concussion test Thursday before we flew out. I was still 50-50 right up until game day, but I felt fine running around,” he said.
