ADELAIDE coach Scott Camporeale hopes the club's 36-point win over Richmond on Friday night helps the playing group believe it belongs in finals contention.
The Crows dominated the contest after the game's opening 10 minutes, out-possessing, out-tackling and out-working the Tigers.
Despite collecting 60 more possessions than the Tigers, they managed to lay 20 more tackles and generate 21 more scoring shots.
If it weren't for their shocking inaccuracy (they kicked twice as many behinds as goals) in attack, they would have won by well over 10 goals.
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The victory pushed the Crows up to seventh on the ladder and into the box seat to qualify for a place in the finals.
But Camporeale is keeping his focus firmly on the remaining four games against Essendon, the Brisbane Lions and Geelong.
"What it does is hopefully give them more belief in the game plan and the game style and how we want to go about it," Camporeale said.
"Our attitude to pressure Richmond when they got the ball was number one and then obviously our tackles – to only have 37 last week compared to 70-odd this week.
"I've said all along, we've got to earn the right to get there (finals).
"We've got to win the next three or four games to guarantee ourselves a spot there and that's what we'll be focusing on."
Five talking points: Adelaide v Richmond
The win was a resounding response to last weekend's huge loss against the Sydney Swans.
The Swans smashed Adelaide by 52 points in what was an embarrassing performance.
With the players' pride dented, Camporeale said the group answered as strongly as he'd come to expect on Friday night.
"This is a proud group and I've been around here for five years and they've responded all the time when they've been challenged," he said.
"There's a great core group of leaders at this footy club and the younger guys are falling in behind them.
"They were disappointed last week and so they should [have been] with what happened but that's the great resilience of this group.
"They've been through a lot and to put a performance up tonight was really pleasing."
