Midfielder Richard Douglas says the Crows must restore their standing as one of the premier contested ball teams in order to be competitive with the better teams in the AFL this season.

An inaccurate Adelaide trailed Carlton by 28 points at quarter time at the MCG on Saturday. The margin swelled to 43 points late in the third term before the visitors staged a mini-revival. Led by defender-turned-forward Matthew Jaensch, the Crows kicked five of the opening six goals of the last term to claw within 17 points. But the Blues steadied with a third goal to Chris Yarran and kicked away to a 32-point win.

Adelaide’s fightback was significant given the early injuries to Taylor Walker (knee) and Luke Brown (concussion), which left the Club with only two players on the interchange bench from early in the second quarter. But Douglas said the players would take little solace in their fourth-quarter effort.

“We might’ve stayed with the Blues on the scoreboard after quarter time, but our performance indicators were down all day. We were beaten in the contest,” Douglas said.

“We showed a bit of fight in the last quarter, but we expect that.

“Overall, it was a very poor day for us.”

After the game, coach Brenton Sanderson identified the contested possession count (161 – 120), which was heavily in Carlton’s favour, as the most “damning” statistic for his team.

“Contested ball is something this footy Club is proud of. In 2012, we were the No.1 contested ball side … we were – 41 today and that highlights we were badly beaten inside the contest,” he said.

Douglas (10) was one of only three Crows to reach double figure contested possessions at the MCG on Saturday. Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane topped Adelaide’s count with 11 each. The Blues had twice as many players in double figures, including forward Mitch Robinson who collected a game-high 20.

“We came into the game thinking we could try to expose Carlton in contested ball, so to get absolutely smashed like we did was very disappointing,” Douglas said.

“In terms of contested ball, - 41 is probably the biggest discrepancy Sando has seen from us and that hurts a bit. We’ll have to get back to basics in the midfield and in contests around the ground because we can’t keep putting forward performances like that.

“It just makes life too hard for the forwards and also the backs who were under pressure all day today.”

Sloane, who along with Douglas has been a consistent contributor in the opening five rounds of the season, accepted changes would have to be made to the midfield mix.

“We’re not winning the key areas we set ourselves to win. Contested ball is the big one and clearances is another, but we continue to be inconsistent in those areas,” Sloane said.

“We’ve got to start playing much better footy. We’ve got to find guys in the midfield who are going to win the footy.”

The Club is unlikely to know the extent of Walker’s injury until he has scans in the coming days.

Forward/ruckman Shaun McKernan did his chances of replacing Walker, should he be sidelined, no harm on Saturday night, kicking 5.1 from 17 possessions and 11 marks in Glenelg’s win over Sturt. Lewis Johnston, who slotted seven goals in a match for North Adelaide earlier this month, kicked 2.2.

“Lewis Johnston has been in good form for North Adelaide and Shaun McKernan kicked five after finding his feet at Glenelg tonight,” Douglas said.

“Regardless of injuries, when you have a poor loss like that you have to expect there will be a few changes. If we put up a performance like we did today, we’ll get beaten again (by Hawthorn) next week.

“The boys are hurting from the loss, but we brought it upon ourselves. Now, we need to improve quickly.”