ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig has praised the fighting spirit of his side in the wake of the Crows’ second heart-breaking narrow loss at Telstra Dome in as many visits.
In their first hitout at the Dome since Lance Franklin dramatically ended their 2007 campaign, Adelaide’s Nathan Bock missed a set shot as time ran out that would have clinched a memorable win against the Bulldogs.
“I was full of admiration for our fight because we were in a bit of trouble early in that game,” Craig said of his team’s resurgence after trailing by 21 points at quarter-time.
“So once again, our supporters have seen the determination and resilience of our group to keep having a go; that’s always an important ingredient.”
“Bock could have won it and the emotions are completely different. The ball gets kicked out of the air [for a goal by Daniel Giansiracusa] in the third quarter, all those little things.
“So there’s an element of luck with it, but in the end, the Bulldogs take their win as they should.”
Craig refused to blame Bock’s last-minute miss for the three-point defeat. “That’s the easy option,” he said.
“I could say Kurt Tippett’s [missed] goal out in front is the one [that cost us]. No that’s too simplistic.
“I haven’t spoken to him, but he’ll be disappointed and he needs to understand, and I’m sure he will understand, that the result comes from more than one particular incident.”
Craig stayed true to his pre-season pledge to give his up-and-coming onballers more game time in the heat of battle with the likes of Richard Douglas, David Mackay and Bernie Vince spending significant time on the ball when the match was in the balance.
He was asked if he was tempted to throw champion midfielders Andrew McLeod and Simon Goodwin into the engine room in the dying minutes.
“Yeah, but then Goodwin kicks a goal which was really important from up forward,” he said.
“I mean if those guys are trusting the [young] guys in the midfield then the senior coach has got to have trust in them as well and that’s the way we'll continue to go.
“It doesn’t mean that Goodwin and Edwards don’t play in the midfield, they do and they will, but we’ve made a decision as a footy club. We changed 30 per cent of our squad over the pre-season and there’s no going back.
“I think that sort of performance today, whilst we didn’t get the result that we wanted, sort of builds on that trust and that confidence in those younger guys.
“We need to do a lot of things better because that won’t be good enough in the end and we will get better.”
Jason Porplyzia and Brett Burton were important players for the Crows and were singled out for special praise by the coach who was also impressed by the young ruck combination of Jonathon Griffin and Tippett.
Even more impressive to Craig though was the sportsmanship shown by his players in forming a guard of honour for Brad Johnson after his 300th game despite the gut-wrenching loss.
“I think that’s a measure of the quality of our group of players to think of doing that,” he said.
“We didn’t discuss doing it, they’ve done that off their own bat which doesn’t surprise me at all.
“It’s a show of respect for what Brad’s been able to do over a long period; he’s been a great player and is still playing very good footy.”
On the injury front, Brent Reilly will have x-rays early in the week to determine if he has fractured his wrist.
