ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig has praised his team’s fighting spirit following Saturday night’s 48-point loss to Geelong at AAMI Stadium.

The Cats were first out of the blocks in every quarter and appeared to have established a match-winning lead with five unanswered goals early in the second.

But the Crows were able to respond and closed within 11 points late in the third term, before Geelong pulled away once and for all with seven goals-to-two in the final quarter.

Craig admitted his side needed to work on its starts after playing catch-up for the entire game.

“We were in big trouble in that second quarter. It looked like it was getting away from us, but to the credit of the players they showed some great fight,” Craig said after the game.

“You can imagine the pressure the players were under at that stage, so to hang in there and fight back and get back within three goals at half-time, again in the third quarter, and even after our start in the first quarter, shows a lot about the group.

“But in the end it just overwhelms you because it gets too much and our last quarter would have to be described as really poor.”

Geelong struggled to combat Adelaide’s intensity at different stages of the evening and was pressured into a record-high 254 handballs.

Gary Ablett, who had 33 of those handballs, was the undeniable standout, finishing with 46 possessions and three goals.

Ablett was able to shrug off every opponent the Crows threw at him, but Craig denied the superstar was beyond being tagged.

“We can’t do more (to stop Ablett) than what we tried to do. He’s an exceptional player because he wins his own ball...you come a long way to watch those players.”