After a tightly-contested opening term, the Crows got right on top of Richmond in the second quarter but their 13 scoring shots yielded just 4.9 with four more shots out on the full.
That inaccuracy left the door ajar and the Tigers duly kicked it wide open in the second half to record a 20-point win.
“We’re a wasteful footy club at the moment,” Craig lamented after his side backed up its errant loss to Port Adelaide with another wayward performance.
“The last two games have demonstrated that. I’m talking about us taking our opportunities. It’s just not good enough - the standard’s not good enough.
“We had our opportunity to win today and win very well and yet we go away a beaten footy club and any opportunity we had to keep our finals aspirations alive have probably gone out the window.
“This is the best competition in the world that we’re playing in, and what we’re putting on show in terms of kicking for goal is amateurish.”
Craig recognised a lack of confidence is several players taking shots on goal and said the immediate concern was to rectify the attitude.
“So what do we do about it? Recognise it first - it’s not a one-off thing - and start to really hone in on it and be tough with ourselves - not back away from it and think that it will be better next week. It won’t be better next week - I’m telling you the pressure will be on next week," he said.
“We’re going to stay at it, we’re not backing off, and we’ve got to get to an AFL standard with our capacity to be able to finish the play. That’s our responsibility otherwise we’ll keep serving up that sort of performance.”
Old hands Simon Goodwin and Andrew McLeod have been steadying influences on the young side this season, but the pair has been forced to watch from the stands over the past fortnight.
Craig was reluctant to draw a parallel between the important duo’s departure from the side through injury following the morale-boosting win over Geelong and the subsequent loss of form.
“Is there a cause-effect relationship? I can’t answer that,” he said.
“I’d like to think not, but that’s something that we need to make sure that we use the next four weeks [for] - for guys to audition, if you like, to see who wants to stand up and be part of the leadership aspect particularly on game day.”
The coach said that he would be surprised if either veteran did not play again this season with Goodwin the more likely to return first.
With matches against the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and St Kilda to come, the Crows face a difficult final month, but Craig will use that time to ask some stern questions of his playing group.
“We keep the heat on ourselves,” he said.
“There will be no backing away from what we’ve been talking about, no backing away whatsoever, and we need to finish the season as strong as we possibly can.
“We’ll find out a lot more about our players, about who wants to be involved when things get a bit tough. We’ve been through a very tough period ... and it doesn’t get any easier.”
