Crows coach Brenton Sanderson says his team needs to find form – and fast – after giving up a five-goal lead to lose to cross-town rivals Port Adelaide by nine points at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.
Sanderson said the third-quarter scoreboard flattered his side, who were beaten by a “better team” on the night.
From himself down, the coach said dramatic improvement was needed in order to turn the Club’s 1-2 start to the season around.
"It starts with the senior coach, I've got to identify ways that I need to improve and get better at coaching," he said.
"From the top down, we'll put a much better performance on than that I'm sure.
"We just need some of our better players to improve and we're not getting the consistency of performance at the moment."
While insisting no club should lose a game when 31 points up in the third quarter, Sanderson said his side never deserved the advantage.
The Crows were beaten in nearly every important statistic for much of the game on Sunday and Sanderson said he didn't hide it from his players.
"I said to the players at half-time, 'don't be seduced by the scoreboard', because we were getting beaten around the contest even though we were in front," he said.
The improvement starts in the midfield – Adelaide’s biggest strength last season. Sanderson earmarked ruckman Sam Jacobs as a player who needed to lift after he was soundly beaten by the Port Adelaide combination of Brent Renouf and Matthew Lobbe.
Jacobs won the Showdown Medal in round 17 last year when he amassed 61 hit-outs – almost an AFL record.
But the Crows were beaten 46-39 in hit-outs in Showdown XXXIV and, crucially, the Power made the most of the ascendancy by winning clearances and inside 50s.
When the ball hit the ground the Power were too strong, winning contested possession 160-145.
Jacobs had just seven centre square hit-outs compared to Renouf's 10 and Lobbe's nine. Sanderson said Jacobs was one of a number of players who weren't contributing enough.
"He got beaten," Sanderson said bluntly of his No.1 ruckman.
"He's one of our players that needs to lift and he knows that, we're not getting the dominance that we used to in there.
"He's one player that's going to have to find some form pretty quickly."
