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Sounding like a government minister, Adelaide captain Simon Goodwin says the Crows must fight a skills shortage to make a mark on the AFL this year.
Well-drilled, competitive and tough-bodied, the Crows were nevertheless made to look second rate by Geelong last week and must find the belief to beat Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday or risk tumbling to the outer edges of the top eight.
Statistics from last Friday night gave strong evidence of the Crows’ ability in close. They won the clearances and contested ball, but wasted that work with repeated clangers under the Cats’ pressure.
Goodwin said the inability to execute under pressure would result in Adelaide continuing to fall short against the best sides.
“There’s a range of things in our game we need to get better at,” Goodwin told reporters today.
“We all saw on the weekend that Geelong’s style of play, the way they move the ball with speed. That’s where we’re trying to get to and that’s going to take some time.
“We’ll continue to work on it at training and they’re the sort of things we’ve got to continually work on. No one’s going to wave a wand and we’ll start beating these sides, so we’ve got to improve and we’ll get there.
“All the sides at the top of the ladder are sides that put the ball on the body consistently, and as a footy side if you want to move the ball quickly that’s something you have to do.
“We’ve got to make sure the ball gets on the body, so it enables us to play with some speed and that’s what we’re looking for, that play-on style of footy. If we can win the contested ball and the clearances and put the ball on the body we’re a long way to winning the game.”
Collingwood excel at limiting an opponent’s ability to be clean in possession, as evidenced by their slogging win over Sydney last week and their surprise thumping of the Cats in round nine.
Goodwin was keen on the prospect of facing that level of pressure again.
“It was great to have that feeling of what Geelong put against us and if Collingwood can put that against us again, we welcome it,” he said.
“We’re a side who want to continue to improve, get better and get up to that level, so if they can do that it should shape as a great game.”
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