DESPITE losing tall Caitlin Gould to injury early in the match, Adelaide bounced back from its disappointing tight loss to Brisbane by knocking off the previously Hawthorn by 21 points at Kinetic Stadium in Frankston on Sunday.

Crows coach Matthew Clarke said he was “really happy” with the performance, particularly given the increased pressure and composure the players showed throughout the match in tricky, windy conditions.

“We obviously had the advantage of the breeze in the first but probably didn’t maximise,” he said. “Obviously Caitlin hurting herself in that quarter was the major disappointment of the day but other than that, really happy with the pressure level and probably just our composure improved a little bit. We used the ball a lot better today.”

Clarke conceded his side had been a little hap-hazardous with its possession going forward, often “blazing away” and causing turnovers. However against the Hawks, he was impressed with the way his players balanced between fast and slow play.

“I feel like our pressure was probably consistent across the whole game, and as opposed to perhaps other weeks, once we got the ball in our hands we actually held control of it a little bit better,” Clarke said. “We had a really high number of uncontested possessions and marks. at times we’ve probably been guilty of blazing a little bit, whereas today we weren’t perfect by any stretch, but I felt like we found the balance between taking it forward and using the free player.”

Though many might discuss the win just like ‘any other game’, Clarke honed in on the significance of beating an opponent of the Hawks’ quality as well as immediately bouncing back from the three-point loss to the Lions in Round 4.

“Obviously last week was a similar scenario kicking into a reasonably stiff breeze and on reflection we went a little conservative a little too early and weren’t able to close it out,” Clarke said. “So to be able to obviously get the win against the Hawks who came in undefeated, that was really important for our season.”

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster made no excuses for the loss, instead keeping it simple as to why the Hawks suffered their first defeat of the season.

“We were just beaten by a better side on the day,” he said. “I thought they were very good, we knew they were going to be strong in the contest which they were, but then they were able to control the game on the outside as well. “I felt like we kind of chased our tail all day, and their better players got on top of us.

“(Ebony) Marinoff and (Anne) Hatchard in particular were excellent. “Just controlled the day from there, I thought their skill level especially going forward was much better than us. “Fundamentally we started panicking a bit and just not using the ball or controlling the ball well enough.

“Good lesson for us, we had to play a high quality team but unfortunately it probably exposed a few things we really need to get to work on.”

Hawthorn focuses its intention on Collingwood next Saturday afternoon when the brown and gold fly into Victoria Park for another ‘Battle of the Birds’. Adelaide continues its road stint by heading north to Queensland where it takes on the Gold Coast Suns on Sunday evening.