Adelaide Senior Coach Matthew Nicks says there are some positive takeaways from his side’s loss to top-four Brisbane. 

The Crows held on tight for the first half of the arm wrestle against their fancied opponents before giving way to the Lions’ 12-goal run to the finish line.  

Nicks said while he understood supporters’ frustration at the loss, the fight of Adelaide’s young defenders was something to be praised. 

“Disappointing wasn’t it, in the end, considering the first half was a great battle,” he told Triple M’s Roo & Ditts. 

“We knew it was going to be a contest, we came in expecting that. But we just weren’t able to hold it.

“But I thought the guys were pretty good in that space early in the game.

“It was about 70 per cent back half in the first five or 10 minutes but we were able to hold on.

“(Jordon) Butts back there, I thought he played really well… Nick Murray stood up and played some great footy, so that’s a really good sign for the Club.”

After losing Taylor Walker to a neck strain, the Crows attempted to stem Brisbane’s third term run by shuffling players and moving defender Tom Doedee forward. 

“We dropped a little bit away in the third and tried a few things in the last quarter, we wanted to have a crack at getting the win,” Nicks said. 

“They had (Marcus) Adams and Harris Andrews behind the footy, we thought we’d put Tom (Doedee) up there.

“Unfortunately we didn’t give him quite as many looks as we’d like to but Tommy can definitely play both ends of the ball.”

Nicks was proud of his side’s early battle but acknowledged there were tough lessons to take away from the clash. 

“You look at the scoreboard - I didn’t feel that was the game,” he said. 

“We sat there afterwards and felt the game wasn’t that big a margin, but in saying that (Brisbane is) a very good side. 

“They’ve got so much class in their team, especially forward of the ball, and they took their chances and we didn’t unfortunately.”