Coach Don Pyke laments Crows’ inability to finish off game as Essendon hit back in final quarter

ADELAIDE conceded the final five goals in a dramatic final-quarter collapse against Essendon on Friday night but coach Don Pyke refused to lay blame at the feet of his players.

• Match report: Adelaide blows big lead against the Bombers
• All the scores and stats from the game
• Bomber blown away by big bump

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke is refusing to blame Friday night’s last-quarter fade out on personnel.

The Crows coughed up a 20-point lead to concede the final five goals to the Bombers who ran out 12-point winners at Etihad Stadium.

They blooded three debutants, recruit Bryce Gibbs and reintroduced Cameron Ellis-Yolmen after 574 days on the sidelines with injury in place of injured trio Taylor Walker, Tom Lynch and Brad Crouch.

Don Pyke said the Crows ‘just didn’t get the job done.’

“In an ideal world that would be the case (new players gel straight away) but we’ve also got some reality in we bring in three new guys and a few who didn’t play a lot of footy for us last year,” Pyke said.

“But that said we were 20 points up at three-quarter-time, so they clearly understood the roles they needed to play, and we couldn’t get it done.

“It was a disappointing last quarter, we came here prepared to play and win a game of footy and we were 20 up at three-quarter-time and expect to win that game and we didn’t.

“We were in a good position but the numbers don’t really lie, we conceded 20 inside 50s in the last quarter which put a lot of pressure on our backline and we were still winning a chunk of ball at times, but it’s fair to say Essendon at the end outworked us.

“We lost control of the ball and field position, when the ball went forward we weren’t able to keep it there and it was played in Essendon’s forward half.

“And late in games when fatigue is in play, field position is vital, so we didn’t hold it and didn’t retain it.”

Asked about Richard Douglas’ report for his bump on Zach Merrett that put the Bomber out of the game in the first quarter, Pyke said he did not see it.

“I haven’t seen it to be honest so I can’t comment on it,” he said.

“I think if it’s fair and it’s low then that’s acceptable, it’s part of the game, but like I said I haven’t seen the incident so I can’t comment.”

Along with Darcy Fogarty, who kicked two goals on debut, a shining light for the Crows was star recruit Gibbs who had 35 touches and also kicked two goals.

“He (Gibbs) was influential at times throughout the night which was good, and bringing someone in from another footy club there is a transition time and period to adapt to the way we play, but he showed some really good signs,” Pyke said.

Bryce Gibbs was one of the shining lights for the Crows.