Ian Callinan says Adelaide must learn from Sydney’s master class at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.
The Crows were handed a football lesson by the reigning premiers, who kicked 10 unanswered goals in the second and third quarters to run out emphatic 77-point winners.
The impressive Swans pressured the shell-shocked Crows into errors and ran harder to score from the turnovers. The visitors’ dominance started in the midfield, where Dan Hannebery (42 possessions and 1.1), Kieran Jack (32 possessions and 1.2), Tom Mitchell (31 possessions and 1.2) and Ryan O’Keefe (28 possessions and 15 tackles) won plenty of the ball.
Callinan said his team had experienced the benchmark for defensive pressure in the competition.
“Sydney just bullied us around the ball. They’ve got some great players in there and they pushed us around at the stoppages, not just in the midfield but all around the ground,” Callinan said.
“In my 30 (AFL) games, it’s probably the best defensive pressure I’ve seen from a team. Sydney set the level we want to get to. We’ve got a pretty young group and it’s a game we have to learn from.
“Young guys like Sam Kerridge, Rory Laird and Brad Crouch can really learn from the way Sydney went about it today.”
For the second straight week, Adelaide paid the price for inaccuracy in front of goal.
The home team started brightly, but managed only 1.4 in the opening term. The Crows also got on top early in the third quarter, but kicked four consecutive behinds (including two posters) for a total of 0.5 for the term. At the other end, Sydney slotted 7.3 to extend its lead to 87 points at the final change. Adelaide finished the game with a return of 6.14.
“We spoke about our goalkicking with ‘Bicks’ (assistant coach Mark Bickley) after the game. It’s pretty demoralising when you work hard to get the ball and then us forwards miss goals. It’s unacceptable and an area we need to fix,” Callinan said.
The Crows now have a week to regroup before taking on Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.
“It’s about sticking together. If blokes go away and start thinking about themselves that’s when the footy club will fall away,” he said.
“It’s unacceptable, the performance we put up today. We need to stick tight, train hard and work hard on the things we need to improve. I’m sure we can turn it around against the Tigers on Saturday.”