Exciting midfielder Brad Crouch said the Crows players found out their finals hopes had been dashed just minutes before running out onto Patersons Stadium for the warm-up on Saturday night.

One of five teams vying for eighth place heading into Round 23, Adelaide needed to win by a healthy margin and have results of three other games go its way to steal the last spot in September. The Crows scored a lucky break when Geelong held on to beat the 10^th-placed Brisbane Lions by one point.

But when cross town rivals Port Adelaide squandered a six-goal lead to lose to Carlton by a point at AAMI Stadium, the Blues secured eighth spot and Adelaide’s September dream came to an abrupt end. Ironically, the Crows made up the necessary percentage to overtake Carlton in eighth spot, but the Blues finished a game clear on 11 wins to Adelaide’s 10.

“It’s disappointing not to make finals, and we knew that we couldn’t just before we ran out onto the ground tonight,” Crouch said on Fox Footy after the game.

“A few of the boys had the AFL App going with the live scores at the hotel and on the bus to the game. Sando (coach Brenton Sanderson) said we weren’t allowed to look at the scores once we got to the ground … but a few of the boys might’ve snuck off to the toilets to have a look at the scores.

“It’s disappointing, but there’s not much we can do about it. I guess we were pretty lucky to be in with a chance of doing it (making the top eight).

“It was still important for us to finish off on a good note. Before the game we said, ‘let’s not even think about it now’. Nothing really changed for us and we were happy to get the win.”

One of the favourites for the Rising Star, Crouch starred against the Eagles. The skilful 19-year-old amassed 29 possessions, seven inside 50ms, five tackles and two goals in Adelaide’s 86-point win.

Crouch was one of a number of young Crows to impress on Saturday night, with Mitch Grigg (three goals), Sam Kerridge (22 possessions and five tackles), Brodie Smith (29 possessions and a goal), Kyle Hartigan (18 possessions and six marks), Luke Brown (21 possessions) and reliable duo Daniel Talia and Rory Laird also showing promising signs.

Crouch said there was cause for optimism at West Lakes in 2014.

“We’ll get better,” he said.

“The young guys will improve again. We’ll get big Tex Walker and Josh Jenkins back and, hopefully, give it a shake next year.”