ADELAIDE coach Matthew Clarke certainly had some sympathy for his opposition mentor Dan Lowther as his Crows weathered a barrage of inside 50s and forward half possessions to grimly hold on before putting the foot down in the final term.

The Crows trailed by 11 points at half-time having only kicked one goal to that point, before piling on nine unanswered majors after the main break to come away with the 10.5 (65) to 3.9 (27) victory. Still down by two points with a quarter to play, Clarke said it was more about executing with polish, and the ball movement that changed the Crows- fortunes.

“We moved a few things positionally, but in the end, but in the end our contest work improved a little bit, and our skill execution and the way we used the ball into the forwardline improved as well,” Clarke said. “There wasn’t major shifts, we’ve been talking over the last month lots of elements of our game are nearly there, and we just need to keep at it, and it will click at some point, and fortunately it happened in the last rather than not at all today, so it was good.”

In terms of the game’s script, Clarke said he understood that Geelong would be frustrated after a dominant first half where the Cats were able to control the play, get the game on their terms and limit the Crows’ scoring. Adelaide had been in the exact position in Round 1 when the Crows piled on 50 inside 50s but were well beaten by a St Kilda outfit that made the most of its chances.

“Obviously the last quarter was outstanding, but Geelong would probably reasonably frustrated with owning a fair bit of the game with a fair bit of uncontested possessions and inside 50s all in their favour,” Clarke said. “A bit like us last week to be honest, we had a fair bit of it and couldn’t convert and they obviously couldn’t really take their chances, but fortunately we hung in, and when we got rolling obviously we had a really strong finish.”

Lowther tended to agree with Clarke’s assessment where he was pleased with his side’s performance for the most part but conceded the Cats “didn’t handle the heat” in the last quarter.

“We played three and a bit quarters of really good control, good contest inside, outside control and had time in our front half where maybe a bit of scoreboard pressure would have alleviated some of the opportunities that the opposition got in the last,” Lowther said.

“Three quarters of good footy, and then the last quarter we just didn’t handle the heat that was put on us by Adelaide and their strong experienced players, our defence was under pressure for a good chunk of that back end of the game, and through weight of opportunities, they took those and maybe the difference was we just didn’t take ours when we had the opportunities to score as well. “So they kicked straight, we don’t, they put pressure on and then the result is how it is.”

The Geelong Cats coach – whose side now sits with a 0-2 start to the season – said it was “hard to watch” in the fourth term.

“Started to lose clearance their influential players got really strong around contests,” Lowther said. “They were clean with the way they move the footy and we just couldn’t compete for that last 15 minutes in particular. “It was hard to watch, but I thought they tried really hard to get themselves back into a position to compete but they just got overran in the end.”

Geelong returns to GMHBA Stadiium to tackle the unbeaten Sydney Swans in Round 3, while Adelaide – reverting to the Indigenous name Kuwarna for the next fortnight – will head to Henson part to take on the battling GWS Giants.