ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks gave his players one minute to vent their fury.
Literally: he put a clock on it.
After releasing their anger at a goal umpire blunder that cost the Crows a shot at the finals, Nicks told his charges to move on.
"I gave them a minute to vent and get out any anger they had," Nicks said on Wednesday. "We put a countdown timer on it.
"We said that'll do it ... whatever gets it off your chest, get out whatever you want to get out. And move on."
The AFL has apologised to the Crows, who were denied a potentially match-winning goal against Sydney with 70 seconds remaining in their one-point loss on Saturday night.
In June this year, after Adelaide's two-point loss to Collingwood, the AFL also apologised to the Crows for a field umpire missing a free kick to captain Jordan Dawson in the last 30 seconds, which would have resulted in a shot at goal.
"It would have been nice to get those going our way," Nicks said. "But things don't always go your way.
"What are we going to do? (If) we dwell on it, we're not going anywhere.
"We move on really quickly. Maybe that's something you learn over your time in the game, there's no point living in the past. Get over it, move on.
"We've got to be better. I'd love for us not to leave it to the last minute of a game to leave it in the hands of someone else ... where it is we end up.
"That's easier said than done.
"And we'll just keep getting better and hopefully next year there's no opportunity for this to happen.
"Even now, let's be honest, we could win again this weekend and still not make the finals so it's not like finals was a guarantee."
Adelaide's season ends in Perth against West Coast on Saturday, with the Crows missing finals for the sixth consecutive season - four under Nicks, whose contract expires at the end of next year.
"There is a certain amount of luck but you make your own luck," Nicks said.
"This year we felt like we made some huge ground, our development in a lot of areas was so strong.
"You go back and look at a lot of the data from this year compared to where we were last year, the growth has been huge.
"And we have got to do that again next year."
