Crows coach staredown fails to impact
ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke says his three-quarter-time staredown in which he eyeballed his players without speaking for an extended period was to make them realise how serious the situation against Melbourne was.
The Crows trailed by 80 points at the final break and rallied briefly in the fourth term only to be overrun and lose by 91. Pyke walked into the huddle and stared furiously.
“I was trying to engage with them and bring them back to the present and get them to actually feel what was going on, I don’t think there was any point ranting and raving at that point,” he said.
“We had a good conversation about what we want to stand for in the last quarter and a small positive is we at least won contested possession in the last quarter, but we saw a repeat of the things that caused us problems in the first three.
“It wasn’t by any stretch a great quarter of footy.
“We’ll stick together and review it, we’ll be pretty direct in terms of the review and what creates winning and what is poor.”
The Crows lost Paul Seedsman before the game and Luke Brown in the first quarter to injury but Pyke said it was no excuse.
“We came here with a side we thought was capable of winning the game and we didn’t perform to our level,” he said. “That’s taking nothing away from Melbourne who were very, very good.”
Without their captain or vicecaptain, Pyke said it was a challenge for others to stand up and provide on-field leadership.