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Adelaide lost to the Bulldogs by six points in Round 2, by eight points to Geelong in Round 3, by two points to Fremantle in Round 4, then by nine points on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
It suggests that Nicks\u2019 side – which was thought to have revitalised its season after a destructive win over North Melbourne last Saturday – is right on the precipice, but \u2018so close\u2019 will only get them so far. <\/p>\n
Asked post-game if he felt his side was one significant win away from asserting itself on the competition, Nicks told reporters in Launceston: \u201cWe need a couple of big wins; it\u2019s not (about) one big win. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to put a performance out there over a full four-quarter game against a really good side, and we haven\u2019t done that yet. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not blind to the fact that there\u2019s still some improvement to come, and it\u2019s probably where I think there\u2019s a bit of frustration, especially (for) those who watch us closely. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t hit our straps yet; we\u2019re not at our best. But to be where we are and know we\u2019ve got so much upside still to come, that gives optimism. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to knock off a couple of really good sides to give ourselves belief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saints great Leigh Montagna said on Fox Footy\u2019s post-match coverage that \u2018almost\u2019 losses to top sides had been \u201cthe story of their year\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey needed to take a scalp to frank the form that they were going to be a genuine contender,\u201d Montagna said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd genuine contender, we\u2019re talking being a top-six team – you\u2019ve got to be top-six this year if you want to win the flag, and if you\u2019re not winning these close games, it makes it awfully difficult. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt maybe just sums up where they\u2019re at; they\u2019re just a bit below the top teams in the competition this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL legend Jason Dunstall added: \u201cThey\u2019re right there in all those games (against top contenders), so they\u2019re putting themselves in positions to win, it\u2019s just taking that next step to get over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson flattened in HUGE hit | 01:56<\/p>\n
But dual All-Australian Montagna highlighted the persistent ball movement flaw in Adelaide\u2019s game, which continues to be underlined in its narrow defeats. The club ranks 15th this year for ball movement. <\/p>\n
The Crows\u2019 11 points from their defensive half on Thursday was their eighth-worst result in the past 10 years, excluding the shortened 2020 season. They also failed to punish off turnover. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the issue tonight for them,\u201d Montagna said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been sound defensively \u2026 (but) it was looking at this ball movement, that we\u2019ve seen improvement against North Melbourne and Richmond in the second half, but tonight they couldn\u2019t score off turnover or out of the back half, coming up against a stiffer defence. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey just lacked a bit of potency, particularly once Rankine went out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide, which notched seven more inside-50s than the Hawks for the match, started and finished well, but a seven-goal-to-two Hawthorn run across the second and third quarters proved fatal for the visitors. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably give us two rounds out of the four – two quarters out of the four – (but) unfortunately, when you leave it that late \u2026\u201d Nicks said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have a look at that and (ask): \u2018What is it that freezes up to finish so strong?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m careful of my use of language here, but it looked like we were a little bit locked up through that second and third (quarters), and unable to break the game back open for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Crows next have their bye before a second meeting with red-hot Geelong back home in Adelaide. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crows coach Matthew Nicks has conceded that his side needs a couple of big scalps to rediscover \u201cbelief\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13015,395,404,124,23,133,3955,15968,15973,15970,6850,564,7392,8912,7380,539,119,135,120,15969,376,15972,1440,5247,15971,15974,117,1438],"class_list":["post-16047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-addresses-reporters","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-america","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ball-movement","tag-crows-coach","tag-eighth-worst-result","tag-genuine-contender","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jason-dunstall","tag-launceston","tag-leigh-montagna","tag-matthew-nicks","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-post-match-coverage","tag-press-conference","tag-quality-opponent","tag-richmond","tag-tasmania","tag-top-contenders","tag-top-six-team","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}