ADELAIDE is back on track and playing its own brand of footy, following Saturday night's 19-point win over the Brisbane Lions, says coach Brenton Sanderson.
Disappointed following a lacklustre opening round loss against Essendon, Sanderson said he was proud of the Crows for their come-from-behind win at the Gabba.
Against the Bombers they were beaten in the clearances 44-33, but turned it around against the Lions with a positive count of 45-32.
The tackle count was also up from 47 to 57 and the general pressure around the contest was closer to the level that saw the Crows get within a kick of last year's Grand Final.
Sanderson said overcoming an eight-point three-quarter time deficit to win was a huge result.
"It was a bit of a theme of ours coming up here to just keep running out the game," Sanderson said.
"Run when it matters, and we certainly put the foot down when it mattered the most which was very pleasing.
"I don’t want to be an open and free flowing football team with our attack and then we leak goals.
"I'd prefer it to be contested, a scrap, like it was tonight, contest after contest after contest. That's when we play our best footy.
"It doesn't suit us to play that open free flowing game. We certainly play better when our attack is on the back of good defence."
Sanderson said the midfield responded strongly after the 15-day break between the two games.
Patrick Dangerfield was brilliant with 23 disposals, eight clearances and two game-changing final-quarter goals, while Scott Thompson (31 disposals, seven clearances) and Matthew Wright (17 and seven) were also influential in close.
"Fifteen days is a long time to wait for a chance for an improvement in performance," Sanderson said.
"You can sometimes have too many meetings, you can sometimes push the panic button a bit too early. The boys are very proud of their performance.
"We didn't have an even contribution from our entire squad in that round one game, but tonight our boys came up and played really well as a team.
"This has always been a really tough road trip … our boys were keen to fight back and make a bit of a statement that last week was a one-off."
