WITH its hopes of playing finals fading fast, Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks concedes his team is in a "dark spot" following Thursday night's loss to Richmond.
Losing by eight points on their home ground to a team that had previously won just once this season has the Crows languishing in 14th place on the ladder.
CROWS v TIGERS Full match coverage and stats
They are a full 10 points adrift of the eight and have played at least one game extra than every team above them.
Nicks was not sugar-coating his team's predicament in his post-match press conference, saying they were low on confidence, but would "dig in even harder" to find a solution.
"We're low on confidence," Nicks said.
"We've got no excuses. We just need to be better, and at the moment, we're not. We're not good enough.
"Right now, post-siren, we sit here in a pretty dark spot, as do a lot of our supporters and members that came out.
"They have the right to feel that way, really disappointed in what we're putting out there.
"We're all in this. It's not an individual or a demographic. We, as a club, have to be better."
Nicks said his main frustration came with the Crows' inability to halt opposition momentum.
Against the Tigers, it was conceding five consecutive goals during the third quarter that proved a deficit too big to climb back from.
Nicks said although his team was "out of form" and it would be difficult to play finals from here, he was confident Adelaide had the list to achieve success.
"From a finals point of view, it's going to be very, very tough for us mathematically to get in," he said.
"It's going to be a tough one for us to turn around, I think we play the top side (Sydney) next week.
"My way of working through this is to dig in even harder and continue to work as hard as I do.
"I'm in the job because I enjoy pressure. Right now, it's at its highest. As a club, that's what we need to do, find a way back."
It could not have been a more different story for Richmond coach Adem Yze, who won just his second game of the season, and first since saluting against the Swans in round three.
He said he was proud of his players and felt like the four-quarter performance was coming after strong outings against Essendon and Geelong in the past fortnight.
His, and Richmond's, attention now turned to Dustin Martin's 300th game against Hawthorn next Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
"It's a massive week for our club and it's one we want to celebrate for one of our greatest players," Yze said.
"We'll have an amazing week leading up to it, our players will want to play well for him and make it a big occasion for him.
"We're not going to shy away from the fact we want it to be a big spectacle."
Martin should have his fellow three-time premiership player Dion Prestia alongside him against the Hawks after the veteran midfielder left the field early with a calf issue.
Yze said Prestia was a little sore going into the game after copping a knock at training.
"We've got nine-day break going into the Hawthorn game, so he should be fine," he said.
