DEVASTATED Adelaide skipper Simon Goodwin says his side must, simply, learn to play better on the day in future finals.

The 31-point loss to Collingwood on Saturday ended the Crows’ season and put coach Neil Craig further behind in his quest to rectify Adelaide’s poor recent September record, which sits at two wins from the past seven starts.

“Our recent finals record is something we need to address. We’re not going to hide away from the fact that we haven’t performed in finals over the last three or four years,” Goodwin said on Sunday.

“We need to play better in finals and we need to play better on the day. Finals are a cutthroat environment - you get one crack at it and we’ve got to perform better.”

The Crows, who surprised many by even making the top eight, led by as many as four goals in the second quarter, but were totally outplayed in the last half.

“You go into a finals campaign with great expectations and within a couple of hours, it’s finished all of a sudden. The playing group is shattered and the club is shattered that we couldn’t progress any further,” Goodwin said.

“We’ll take our time and we’ll review the game, review our preparation and see if we can make some improvements. I suppose getting there [to the finals] is one thing, but we want to make sure that we start winning finals.”

Adelaide blooded five finals debutants against the Pies on Saturday and, despite the loss, Goodwin said the club had come ‘a long way’ in the past 12 months.

“When we looked at our list last year - we had some younger players on there that we weren’t sure about and now we know they are good quality players,” he said.

“The guys that have come into the team this year have made huge inroads into where the club is going and into their development, so we’re on the right track.”

The club, which farewelled 12 players last year, is preparing for another busy off-season ahead of the Gold Coast-inspired draft ‘lockout’, which will begin in 2009.

After Saturday’s loss, Craig identified the forward line and method of ball movement into attack as areas marked for improvement and Goodwin was confident Adelaide had the personnel to make it work.

“We’ve made some big changes already in terms of personnel. We’ve just got to make sure those younger players continue to improve and I’m sure we’ll perform eventually,” Goodwin said.

“We’d love to have a Buddy Franklin, but reality says we haven’t got one. We’ll continue to develop what we’ve got and we’ll continue to look in the draft and see we what we can find.

“We’ve got a lot of guys under the age of 24, so we’ve got a lot of talent there to develop and we’re looking forward to the next 12 months.”