Senior Coach Matthew Nicks has been blunt about the disappointing reality of Adelaide’s loss to Collingwood, labelling it “frustrating”. 

The Crows couldn’t claw back the game after a slow start, ultimately going down by five points to the Pies at home. 

Post-match, Nicks didn’t pull any punches - labelling Adelaide’s first quarter its worst of the season. 

“There is some positive there and there is some growth we’re seeing from the group, but it’s not acceptable to come out like we did to start the game,” Nicks said. 

“It’s fair to say that was probably the worst quarter of footy we’ve played with the ball in hand (this year).

Frustration, frustration, frustration

Nicks used one key word to describe both his, the players’ and the fans’ response to Adelaide’s home ground performance: frustrating. 

“We didn’t get it right to start the game and we were extremely frustrated, all of us, about the fact that we weren’t able to get the result,” Nicks said. 

“It’s one we gave away in the end. With all respect to Collingwood, it’s a great win for them, but we gave the ball back over and over.

“It’s hard to defend when you do that.

“(There’s) frustration at the moment. I was really disappointed with the way we started the game.

“To our group’s credit, we had a chance to have a time out at quarter time and a chance to regroup and they came out and played some great footy in the second quarter.

“Again in the third, but to get it wrong at the end of the game and just completely lose our structure when the game was on the line was, again, so frustrating.”

The senior coach said much of that frustration came from the group itself. 

“That’s not purely my frustration, that’s players’,” Nicks said. 

“We sat around post-game and had quite a lengthy review.”

Missing the easy ones

Nicks said his forwards’ inability to get the ball between the big sticks was a point of frustration, particularly when it was the simple shots that Adelaide wasn’t getting right. 

“Tonight we missed the easy ones,” Nicks said. 

“It’s not a trend. If we go back to Round One, or even the preseason, we kicked inaccurately in a game and we had a conversation about that post that particular week.

“We said, ‘When it becomes a trend, we’ll address it’. So far this year with our goalkicking, we’ve done a lot of work on it and we’ve got some very, very good goalkickers.”

Time to learn the lessons

Nicks said he was confident his young side was taking the harsh lessons of disappointing losses on board.

“We’d love to have got this one and got the points but we have a fantastic organisation. We’ve got a great group of people doing really good stuff,” Nicks said. 

“Today was a big, big (lesson) for a young group of players.

“We don’t have to have too many more of these (lessons), I’ve mentioned this over the past month.

“You actually get to a point as a player, sometimes that’s 50 games in, where you get sick of experiencing this feeling.

“It’s not only about that lack of experience, we’ve got some senior players who are hurting as well.

“We’ll get better and we’ll continue to get better but we’re on track and we are growing as a group.”