Adelaide coach Don Pyke laments third-quarter blip that left Crows finals hopes in tatters
CROWS coach admits his side now has very little “wiggle room” in bid to make 2018 finals after 13-point home loss to Melbourne.
ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke says his players have learned the hard way what happens if you take your foot off the pedal in close AFL matches as the Crows’ finals chances took a grievous blow in after third-quarter fade-out against Melbourne on Saturday.
The Demons staged a 38-point turnaround after the long break on the back of the brilliance of ruckman Max Gawn and his foot soldiers winning the contested ball.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin, a former Crows champion, watched nervously as the Crows staged a counterpunch in the last quarter only to run out of time to haul in the lead.
Pyke could blame not only the hurtful third quarter but also not cashing in more when dominant in the first quarter, a raft of skill errors and five shots for goal that hit the post.
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“In the last 15 minutes of the third quarter most of the damage was done,” Pyke said. “But the signs early in that quarter weren’t great.
“I think it was 17-4 (down) in clearances, we gave away field position and then we’re rebounding out of our back half consistently with pressure on from the game.
“Then we had a few skill errors and that compounded the problem.
“It was a regretful 15 minutes of footy.
“We went into half time feeling we’ve done a lot right and we got the game played the way we wanted to.
“We just weren’t able to sustain that in the third quarter.
“For a chunk of that third quarter — to Melbourne’s credit, they were very good — we were nowhere near the level we want to be able play at to compete against good sides.”
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But Pyke had little time worrying about what the loss did to the Crows’ finals chances.
The club is now likely to not only have to win all of its remaining four matches but also rely on other results to make the eight.
“I don’t sit down and really do the maths,” Pyke said. “I know the reality is we’ve got to keep winning games of footy and obviously losing one tonight makes that job harder.
“There’s probably very little wriggle room from here.
“We’ve got a massive game again next week.
“For us it’s about recovering, buttering up and getting ready to go again to win games of footy.
“That’s what we’re here to do.”
Pyke lost a rotation when Paul Seedsman came off with a hamstring injury at the 15-minute mark.
Mitch McGovern was also treated for a shoulder injury.
But Pyke said it wasn’t a lack of run that hurt the Crows, but a lack of contest in the third quarter — and the Crows did win the previous week despite having two men on the bench for the second half.
“We had to do a bit of shuffling but I didn’t see it as a pure run thing,” Pyke said.