‘Worst half I’ve been involved with for a long time’: Daniel Talia on the Adelaide Crows’ Showdown 47 capitulation
Adelaide defender Daniel Talia has joined coach Don Pyke in branding the Crows’ second half against Port as ‘embarrassing’ and says his side will need to do some soul searching before heading to the Gold Coast.
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Adelaide defender Daniel Talia says the Crows are now no guarantees to even beat cellar-dwellers Gold Coast in the wake of an “embarrassing” Showdown performance.
The leadership group member labelled the Crows’ second half performance, in which they were blown apart by a rampant Port Adelaide outfit, as one of the worst he had been involved in for a long time and said there would be a week of soul searching ahead as the club seeks to get its season back on track.
“From being pretty much even until halftime to losing by 10 goals it’s pretty embarrassing as a group,” Talia told The Advertiser.
“It was probably the worst half I’ve been involved with for a long time at the club and we are going to have to turn it around because that is not where we want to be.
“We were outworked but when you are losing 50/50 contests and you know when you are playing the Showdown that it’s going to be four quarters of footy and both clubs spoke about it during the week and they had more contributors all over the ground.
“They wanted it more than us, I could feel it out there, they had more numbers around the contest, they were hungrier for the ball and that is pretty disappointing for us as a team.”
The 57-point thrashing by the Power follows on from a 27-point loss at Geelong since the Crows had their mid-season bye.
In both games the Crows have trailed by less than three points at halftime before fading out in the second half.
Talia said this needed to be rectified, and quickly.
“We have to bounce back pretty quickly because in the last couple of weeks we have been in the game until half time and haven’t been able to play four quarters,” he said.
“So we need to look at why and answer those questions.
“I don’t know why we are playing like this but you can feel it out there.
“I think when you go through, and you see this in the comp, every side goes through tough weeks and Collingwood now are probably in the same boat.
“We played some really good footy before the bye but now we haven’t come out and kept that going afterwards.”
On paper the Crows have a perfect opportunity to return to the winner’s list when they travel to Queensland to take on the Gold Coast, after the Suns were belted to the tune of 92 points by Richmond on Saturday.
But Talia said after the Crows’ battles of late, it could be a tough game against the Suns.
“They came over here six to eight weeks ago and really put it up to us, and the way we are playing there are no games that are shoe-ins at the moment,” he said.
“We are going to have to fix a lot of things during the week, have some pretty tough conversations. Footy can change so quickly but that was an embarrassing second half that’s for sure.”
Talia, who had to come off the ground with a suspected right ankle injury early in the second quarter but returned after having it strapped, finished the Showdown with 14 disposals, seven marks, two tackles and six intercept possessions.
He said the Crows failed in a number of key areas against their arch rivals.
“Off the top of my head it’s contest, it’s workrate, you can’t play the game from the back-half and it’s pretty hard when you get smashed around the centre,” he said.
“We knew that going in that with the comp being so even if you are off 10 to 20 per cent, and that’s what we were in that second half.
“To come out and not make the most of that first half … we turned up first half but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard and we were just smashed in that second half all over the ground.”