Adelaide captain Nathan van Berlo says Melbourne loss had Crows chasing their tail

ADELAIDE captain Nathan van Berlo concedes the Crows struggled to recover from the disastrous Round 7 loss to Melbourne and losing six games by less than two goals ultimately cost them a spot in the finals.

3/5/14 - AFL Round 7 - Adelaide Crows v Melbourne Demons at Adelaide Oval - Bernie Vince and Patrick Dangerfield after the game Picture Simon Cross

ADELAIDE captain Nathan van Berlo concedes the Crows struggled to recover from the disastrous Round 7 loss to Melbourne and losing six games by less than two goals ultimately cost them a spot in the finals.

In his 2014 ‘captain’s call’ to be published in the Sunday Mail this weekend, van Berlo details his frustration at enduring the entire season in the coaches’ box as he was sidelined with an Achilles injury. Although Adelaide’s stop-start season never really got going, the Crows teased supporters right until the end when their Round 23 clash with St Kilda was declared a dead rubber after Richmond secured eighth spot the night before.

“We put ourselves in a position where we had to rely on other results which is our own fault for having missed opportunities throughout the year where we could have possibly done things better as a team,” van Berlo said.

No missed opportunity would hurt more than the three-point loss to the lowly Demons at Adelaide Oval in May. Having clawed their way back from a 0-3 start to the season to be 3-3, the Crows were unexpectedly 3-4 going into the bye.

“You always look back at missed opportunities throughout the season and probably the Melbourne game was one where we were heading into the bye afterwards and it was a good chance to get our season right where we wanted it to be leading into the break,” van Berlo said. “We were forever from there fighting back and you always look back at your close games and that was one of them ... that had we got over the line we could be playing finals footy.”

In his review of the season, van Berlo also said:

THE Crows’ win over Port Adelaide in the second Showdown of the season was a “good scalp”.

TAYLOR Walker’s return from a knee reconstruction boosted team morale even before he was in the senior side.

“Even when Tex was playing in the SANFL you could feel the group start to really gain some energy from him being around the place and out there training with us.”

ADELAIDE spoke about having “pride in performance” before its final game when it learned Richmond had booked a finals berth.

“There was a lot of speaking about pride in performance and finishing off the year as best we could,” van Berlo said.

“It was Truck’s (Ben Rutten) last game, he’s a huge influence over our playing group, especially for our young defenders and for guys that have played with him for a number of years we loved having him out there.”

Originally published as Adelaide captain Nathan van Berlo says Melbourne loss had Crows chasing their tail