The Adelaide Crows are “going backwards”, according to Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon, as coach Matthew Nicks lamented his side’s “extremely disappointing” start against Hawthorn.
The Crows conceded the first four goals of the game – and 10 of the first 12 goals overall – on their way to a 27-point loss to the Hawks on Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
The Crows were down in most of the major statistics following the first half, losing inside 50s (30-18), contested possessions (65-59) and marks inside 50s (7-2).
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“Probably more so the way we played in that first half, it’s as bad as we have played all year, there is no excuse for that, so that’s where it sits in the guts at the moment,” Nicks said.
“We had a lack of contest, we didn’t have our usual dare, we got beaten up around stoppage, we seemed to lack energy for whatever reason.”
The performance, too, was rather unexpected after the efforts Nicks’ side had produced in previous weeks, with four wins from five matches heading into the encounter.
“We had consistent form coming in so to perform at such a low level, at halftime the game was almost done,” he said. “We have come here and played and we haven’t had good results here but we have walked off reasonably proud of what we have put out there but today was not one of those days at all.”
“We nearly proved that was wrong but to be in that position is something that we will look at this week.”
Speaking on Fox Footy, Melbourne champion Lyon said there were big concerns over the Crows for the back half of the year.
“Expectations coming into the season for the Adelaide Crows were lofty on the back of last year. They started appallingly and now they’ve had it handed to them by Hawthorn at the MCG – and they’ve got an injured Tex Walker,” Lyon told Fox Footy.
“They’re going backwards, really, instead of the other way. It’s polar opposite to the Hawks.”
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“It looked like they played with a lot on their mind. ‘Do we go fast? Do we go slow? Do we go sideways?’ Other teams just go and play.”
Triple premiership Tiger Jack Riewoldt added: “The quote was they wanted to throw the first punch – and they certainly didn’t. They got punches thrown at them and they just didn’t react to it.”
Nicks said his side would need to improve around the contest following the 12.8 (80) to 16.11 (107) loss.
“Sometimes it comes back to an energy and contest that you expect,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as let’s just win or halve a contest and we weren’t able to do that for 60-odd minutes.
“We were dominated in that first half, we haven’t seen that this year yet.”