Kicking four goals against his old club was little consolation for Eddie Betts at the MCG on Sunday.
Betts, who joined the Crows as a free agent at the end of last season, looked lively from the outset in his first game against the Blues.
The dual All Australian worked hard defensively to slot Adelaide’s second goal, catching Irishman Zach Tuohy holding the ball and converting the resulting shot at goal. His second goal was a classy right-foot snap after swooping on a loose ball in the third quarter. Betts’ third goal put Adelaide seven points ahead at the start of the last quarter and his fourth came when he outsmarted two opponents in a marking contest close to goal.
It equalled the classy forward’s best return as a Crow (he also kicked 4.1 against Port Adelaide in Round Two), but he said his standout performance mattered little in the aftermath of his team’s disappointing five-point defeat.
“We should have got the ‘W’ (win), that’s what we came over here for,” Betts said.
“Yeah, I played okay and it was great to kick some goals, but what I really wanted – what all the boys wanted – was a win and we didn’t get it, so it’s disappointing.”
Betts endured a few boos from the Carlton faithful and his ex-teammates did their best to put him off his game. But the two-time leading goalkicker was able to block out the emotion – until the final siren went at least.
“All week I was fine, but then about an hour before the game I felt that real nervous feeling coming on,” Betts said.
“Once the first siren went, the nerves disappeared a bit and I got on with the game. There were a lot of words exchanged, but speaking to the Carlton boys after the game they said, ‘the words didn’t mean a thing. They’re just words. We love ya and we miss ya’.
“It was a bit emotional actually. It just would’ve been nice to get the win.”
After a lacklustre first half, the Crows rallied to win the contested possessions (141-133), inside 50ms (54-50) and clearances (37-33), but the team’s tackling (59) and kicking efficiency (58 per cent) was well down on the performance against Collingwood.
Adelaide was also left to rue missed opportunities in front of goal. The visitors, who kicked 2.7 to half time, finished with 26 scoring shots to Carlton’s 21.
“We had some chances early, but didn’t take them and let Carlton into the game,” Betts said.
“We need to start better, so we’re not chasing butt. We make games hard for ourselves … we’ve got to work on being more consistent across the four quarters.
“We kicked 16 behinds all up. We do a lot of work on our goalkicking, but we need to do more and that includes snaps as well. The competition is so close you can’t afford to waste opportunities and unfortunately we did tonight.”
Betts said the Crows had let their fans down on Sunday after a heart-warming display against the Pies 10 days earlier.
“It’s tough to swallow. We’ve got to find consistency in our game and try to get on a roll. We’re too up and down at the moment,” he said.
“We lost to Carlton and Melbourne, which were both winnable games for us. It hurts us. It hurts the fans and it hurts the coaching staff – it hurts everyone really.”
The Club will now prepare to take on a red-hot Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval on Sunday. The star-studded Suns have won five straight games to sit in third place on the AFL ladder.
“It’s going to be a really tough game. We’ve got to get on top of early and get our fans into the game,” he said.
“Our fans basically got us over the line against Collingwood with their noise and support. We let them down with our performance today, but we really need them there on Sunday.”
The match will be Adelaide’s first Indigenous Round fixture at home in nine years. The team will wear a special guernsey designed by Club great Andrew McLeod to help mark the occasion.