Inside the minute that cost Crows dearly in Gather Round loss to Geelong

Adelaide led by four goals one minute before half-time in the Gather Round opener against Geelong. Then the Crows opened the door – and the Cats never looked back.

It was the costly red-time burst when Adelaide opened the door for Geelong.

The Crows led by 24 points with one minute left in the second quarter, but by 20 seconds into the third term the margin was down to one goal and the Cats had their tails up.

Geelong’s two majors in the last 54 seconds just before half-time frustrated Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks.

The first goal came after Mark Keane went for a mark one-handed, the ball spilt and Tyson Stengle slipped from a Jake Soligo tackle to assist Jack Bowes.

Then, clumsy ball handling from Reilly O’Brien led to a turnover in the middle, a long Max Holmes clearance to Jeremy Cameron and a set-shot from 45m.

Kicking truly with eight seconds left in the half gave momentum to Geelong – and to Cameron, who had been goalless from seven disposals.

“We were really disappointed with the way we finished that first half,” Nicks said.

Mark Keane's dropped mark led to a Cats goal

Clumsy ball handling from Reilly O’Brien led to a turnover in the middle ... and a Jeremy Cameron goal.

Crows players leave the ground after their loss to Geelong. Picture: Getty Images

“Momentum can change in games and it won’t be until we go back and have a look at why did it turn so sharply.

“We came in ahead but we just felt you can’t do that against really good sides.”

From Bowes’s goal at the 31-minute mark of the second term that helped get the visitors going, Geelong booted 11 goals to Adelaide’s four to prevail by 19 points.

Crows defender Wayne Milera added: “We know when we’re playing a good team, it’s going to be a bit of an arm-wrestle, we’ve got to limit teams getting their momentum.

“That’s where they got a little bit of their momentum.”

The other part of the game Adelaide will scrutinise closely will be the last quarter.

During that term, contested possessions (+16), inside 50s (+6), disposals (+22) and clearances (+2) went in the Cats’ favour.

Milera highlighted a lack of composure under pressure, going away from the way the team was playing during the first three terms forwards of centre and losing territory as key factors behind Adelaide’s struggles during the last stanza.

Not the team’s five-day break coming off a hot afternoon match on the Gold Coast.

The Cats piled on 5.3 to 1.0 after three-quarter time.

Cameron booted three goals and Patrick Dangerfield the other two.

“It is what it is and you deal with it,” Milera said of the short turnaround between games, both losses.

“I don’t think it was much of a factor.

“We had a five-day break, they had six days.”

Nicks lamented his side turning the ball over in “undefendable” areas as it conceded at least 90 points.

Adelaide’s high-scoring style had been spurred from a league-leading average of 54.3 points per game from its defensive half before Thursday night’s match.

By half-time, the Crows had kicked 4.4 to Geelong’s 2.0 from that source.

Adelaide made it 7.5 to 3.1 late in the last term.

Given four of the last six premiers have ranked first in that statistic, according to Fox Footy, the Crows’ prowess was hugely encouraging.

But the downside of some of their aggressive ball movement was coughing the ball up in spots Geelong could easily punish them.

Mitch Hinge was a culprit for Bailey Smith’s major late in the third term and Patrick Dangerfield’s third goal, nine minutes into the last quarter.

“We always talk about if we’re playing our way, we make a mistake and we don’t execute, we’ll back our guys in,” Nicks said.

“We love to play an entertaining brand of footy but we’re always going to try to balance that.

“We want to win, we want to play finals footy … so we understand that we can’t just be flair all the time, fast and taking the game on.

“It’s something we’ve got to keep working on.”

Tidying up their mistakes helped Geelong get back in the contest and kicking goals from the middle kept the Cats in it early.

Scoring 24 points from centre bounce was Geelong’s third-best opening half from that source over the past decade.

Cameron’s momentum-building goal came from Holmes’s quick centre clearance.

But Chris Scott’s side had conceded 58 points from turnovers during the first two quarters, the club’s fifth-worst opening half in that statistic since 1999.

The Cats’ 72 points against at the long break was their fifth-worst to half-time in the past 10 years.

They were not helped by the absences of defensive mainstays Tom Stewart (illness), Jack Henry (hamstring) and Jake Kolodjashnij (groin).

“It wasn’t always us handing the ball back to them,” Scott said of the high number of points conceded from turnovers.

“Coming out of our backline, we thought we were trying to be a bit too precise with the ball, but their defence was good.

“It’s a fine line because you can easily tip into a mode where you want to clear the area and kick it back to them when the ball lives in your back half.

“That number (58 points from turnovers) is a bad one in a half of footy so it was good to see it arrested.”

With the backline trio missing, younger defenders Connor O’Sullivan, playing his sixth game, Sam De Koning (67) and Lawson Humphries (16) had important roles in the win.

De Koning kept in-form Crows big man Riley Thilthorpe (1.2) quiet during the opening half.