The Crows now have only one more match – a clash with Carlton at AAMI Stadium on Friday night – to get their game-style and mindset right for their home and away season opener against Essendon on March 22.
"There's concern, for sure," Sanderson said after Adelaide barely gave a whimper in going down to Geelong by 63 points.
"We had a good side in today. We were much better than Geelong on paper, when you look at experience and games played.
"And we're effectively a week ahead of them because we've had two practice games and they've only had the one.
"We were expecting a much better effort than that. Maybe if you can have a wake-up call in March, it probably was one.
"We've certainly got to put a better effort in (against Carlton on Friday night)."
Sanderson felt the interchange trial, which restricted each team to 80 rotations, impacted his team.
However, he was certainly not using that as an excuse for the poor performance.
"It affects us a little bit, because we're a high interchange side," he said.
"We certainly rotate a lot, and we didn't seem to quite have that speed that we normally have.
"We normally make 160 rotations a game; today we were limited to 80.
"We weren't running across the ground and Geelong beat us to the ball a bit.
"If the AFL bring that rule in, we've got to make sure we're ready for it."
The only drama for Geelong was the leg injury suffered by Paul Chapman, which resulted in the 31-year-old being subbed out of the game at quarter-time.
"He had a bit of a tight quad, I think, so it was more precaution that injury," Cats assistant coach Blake Caracella said.
"Hopefully next week he might play, or the week after."
Geelong plays North Melbourne at Simonds Stadium next Saturday in round three of the NAB Cup.
