- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Adelaide coach Neil Craig has issued a rallying cry to his players and fans after the Crows slumped to a fifth successive AFL defeat and further into crisis.
The winless Crows were given a 49-point belting by the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Friday night to effectively consign them to this season’s also-rans.
With their finals hopes gone and with too many players underperforming, Craig vowed to identify the areas his side needed to improve in and rise to the challenge of fixing them.
And he urged his misfiring players to do the same.
“What it does is provide a platform for challenges in a whole range of areas – for the players, for the coaches,” Craig said.
“We need to take some small steps, be very clear about where we’re going and start to move forward.
“We still value winning games of football and that will be staying.
“We continue to push on. There’ll be no giving up on anything we do.”
The Crows, mentioned as top four chances at the start of the season and going within a kick of making last year’s preliminary final, look a far cry from the side which finished 2009 with such gusto.
While they started well and led by two goals midway through the first term, Craig admitted his players soon became hesitant.
“You could argue some guys didn’t want to get the ball,” he admitted.
Craig believes the Showdown against cross-town rivals Port Adelaide looming next Saturday could have come at a good time to snap his side out of their rut.
But he said the most important thing was for his players to lift their form – and he hopes that will help lift supporter morale for what shapes as one of the Crows’ most significant home-and-away matches in years.
“We need to improve that (form) dramatically … we’re wasting our time talking about everything else but the form we’ve got at the moment and how we improve it,” Craig said.
“That’s what the Crows’ tribe would want to know. There’ll be no giving up on anything we do. We owe that to our members.”
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.