“We got off to a flyer and played the way we had planned to all week, and it showed on the scoreboard,” said the midfield star.
“They’re a fantastic side and we took it up to them for a fair period of the game, but just didn’t want it enough at the right time.
“We went away from a few things that we were doing really well in the first quarter. We made some poor errors and went into our shell a bit, and didn’t take the game on like we wanted to in the second half.
“Credit to Adelaide. They stood up and started to put serious pressure on us and that forced us to make errors . . . and that’s the end result.
“They’re the No. 1 contested team in the competition, and also really high up in the clearances, and at half-time, I think we were up by 14 or 15 contested possessions. Clearances, we were still down a little, but it shows we can compete in those areas . . .
“The longer we can stay in games with contested footy, clearances and inside-50s, then we’re going to give ourselves the best opportunity.
“We went away from a few things that we were doing really well in the first quarter. We made some poor errors and went into our shell a bit, and didn’t take the game on like we wanted to in the second half.
“That’s disappointing, but we’ll learn from it and make sure that we come out better and stronger next week.”
