AS THE frustration at Adelaide mounts, acting co-captain Rory Sloane is questioning his side's drive, intensity and mindset after a meek second half against Fremantle on Sunday.
The Crows held a two-point lead at half-time, but barely fired another shot as the Dockers cruised to a 40-point win.
Sloane was at a loss to explain why his teammates' intensity was lacking, particularly given the importance of the match.
Had the Crows managed to convert their half-time lead into a victory, they would have been level with Essendon just one win outside of the eight.
As the club arrived back in Adelaide on Monday ahead of its vital encounter with North Melbourne on Saturday night, Sloane said it was up to the playing group to correct the ongoing issues.
"The same stuff always pops up but as players we've got to take a bit of responsibility and start to action some of it because it's not good enough," Sloane said.
"It just didn't seem like there was a lot of effort and [our] intensity just lacked completely.
"It definitely came down to not having a good mindset going into the game – we just lacked a bit of intensity.
"We were only three goals down at one stage [in the final term] I reckon and to just not get a response and get that feeling like we were still in it, that was probably the frustrating thing. It's frustrating for us, players and coaches, and our members and supporters as well."
Given they have just six days to prepare for their clash against the Kangaroos, Sloane said the Crows would train lightly this week.
But a light week on the track doesn't mean there will be any drop off in intensity.
"We've been training really well, the intensity at training's been really good and for some reason it's not flowing over to games," he said.
"We've just got to make sure we stay hard on each other at training and keep the standards really high because I'm a huge believer it all starts at training."