Adelaide midfielder Rory Laird has revealed Matthew Nicks’ half-time message that sparked a 44-point comeback.
The Crows would ultimately go down to Richmond on Saturday in Round 2 by 32 points, but that margin looked set to be far bigger at half-time.
Nicks’ troops walked off at the main break 45 points down after a particularly dreadful second term where Richmond piled on seven goals.
Laird acknowledged that the game got out of hand as Richmond’s style took hold.
“We sort of played into Richmond’s hands a bit in that second term, they like a free-flowing game and they’re really good at punishing us on turnover and that was pretty much the main point that they scored from in the second quarter,” Laird stated on SEN SA’s The Run Home.
“We were trying to go forward and we made mistakes and they were able to punish us off that. They executed going inside 50 a lot better than us. We had our opportunity to kick some goals and we missed a few easy ones…
“When they’re allowed to play like that they’re pretty hard to stop.”
But Adelaide narrowed the margin to just one point early in the final quarter courtesy of booting seven goals to one.
“'Nicksy' brought us in and just calmed us down a bit. We were playing pretty frantically and if you see the numbers in the third quarter we were able to pin it in our forward half, (get some) repeat entries,” Laird continued.
“They still got a few looks but we still had nine shots on goal and 75 per cent in our forward half.
“That slowed them down and slowed their movement down and we played a bit smarter and it the pressure on.
“That was the momentum change and they were able to wrestle it back unfortunately.”
But while the margin was one point at the 12-minute mark of the final term, the Crows couldn’t kick on and ran out of steam, conceding the last five goals to the Tigers.
Laird suggested his side lost the momentum out of the centre bounce and therefore probably would not have been deserving winners.
“We lost the next three centre bounces I think. They actually executed really well out of them and were able to hit up (Tom) Lynch and (Jack) Riewoldt, but we hadn't really changed too much around the setup and what we were doing in there because what we were doing in the quarter worked,” Laird explained.
“They sort of wrestled back the momentum, we have to be better in that. But as I said, we only played one quarter in pretty much four, so that put us in a bit of a hole.”
Ultimately, Laird conceded it was a “pretty frustrating” evening for the club. Round 2’s slow start shared similarities to Adelaide’s Round 1 loss to GWS, where the side was also unable to play four quarters of football.
“It was pretty frustrating, to be honest, a tale of us pretty much playing a quarter and a half of football, which is not going to win you too many AFL games,” Laird accepted.
“In the end, against a really quality opposition, we left too much work to do and the good side that they are, they were able to wrestle back the momentum and run away with the four points in the end.”
A Showdown with Port Adelaide now looms this weekend, a contest Laird, Nicks and the Crows will be desperate to bring their best to for the entirety.
