Adelaide Crows coach Don Pyke: I’m not a believer in honourable losses

ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke says the Crows will review their third-quarter lapse and final-minute set-up as they keep an eye on sore stars Taylor Walker and Sam Jacobs in the wake of a five-point Showdown loss.

An animated Don Pyke at three-quarter time. Picture: Sarah Reed Crows press conference

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ADELAIDE’S early-season issue — lapses within games — has returned to haunt the Crows.

Coach Don Pyke on Saturday night was left to lament a horror third quarter, in which Port Adelaide star Robbie Gray helped himself to five goals and Showdown 44 slipped through Adelaide’s fingers.

The Crows did counterpunch and regained the lead with less than a minute to go in the final quarter, but Pyke will be scathing of how they let the Power back in the game — and let it skip out in front — after Adelaide had been in command and playing well in the first half.

Don Pyke and Taylor Walker stand with the rest of the team after the loss. Picture Sarah Reed

“I thought we were playing OK at half time,” Pyke said. “I thought the game was in our favour.

“The reality was we were probably 20 points up 20 minutes into the third quarter and conceded five goals at the end of that third quarter and all the momentum swung.

“And it was off the back of the things that we value, which is the contest and our pressure on the ball dropped away.

“To Port’s credit, they were able to get field position and score.

“That was it in a nutshell and it continued into that last quarter.

“To our guys’ credit, they hung in there.”

Showdown 44: Crows v Port Adelaide in pictures

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Pyke also hosed down the notion of the match, which ended a five-match winning streak for the Crows in Showdowns, being recorded as an honourable loss.

To Pyke, there was no such thing.

“I’m not a believer in honourable losses,” Pyke said. “This industry is about winning and that’s what we’re here trying to create.

“They kicked seven goals in 20 minutes of footy and that’s against 14 for the night.

“That’s where you win or lose it.”

Adelaide’s injury curse didn’t let up, either.

Captain Taylor Walker spent a portion of the match on the bench with some tightness in his glute muscle while ruckman Sam Jacobs went down to the rooms for some treatment during the second quarter for reported back spasms.

Both will be monitored during the week.

Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs goes down the race to the rooms for treatment on a back complaint. Picture: Sarah Reed

Pyke will scrutinise what happened in the final minute, when the Crows were trying to ice the game.

But his gut feel was that it was human error rather than a flaw in the set-up that allowed the Power to steal the game.

“That’s the stuff that we practise,” Pyke said. “We went into a structure that was about trying to close that game out.

“We’ll review that.

“I think from a structure point of view we got that reasonably right. It was execution: we had two guys collide and the ball spilt out.

“That’s footy. Sometimes when you lose by under a goal it’s a bit like the old saying: sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the wind shield.

“Tonight we ended up being the bug.”