ADELAIDE midfielder Rory Sloane denies his side has a goalkicking problem despite its struggles in the last fortnight.

Coach Neil Craig was scathing in his assessment of the Crows’ finishing against Richmond last weekend, describing the inaccuracy -which included a return of 4.9 in the second quarter - as “amateurish”.

Like the Crows, the Tigers recorded 25 scoring shots for the game, but kicked a more respectable 15.10 to run out 20-point winners.

Goalkicking also troubled Adelaide in its showdown loss to Port Adelaide, with its score of 9.15 including 2.9 in the first half.

The Crows’ strike rate was better in their wins over Essendon, West Coast and Geelong between rounds 14 and 16, and Sloane said a consistent approach to goalkicking would help the players regain their composure.

“I don’t really see it as a problem. The four weeks before the Port game we were kicking fairly straight and, especially in the Geelong game we converted a lot of tough set shots from outside50 and on angles,” Sloane said on Wednesday.

“As it’s been documented over the last couple of weeks we’ve had a lot of scoring shots, but probably haven’t converted as well as we should have. It’s caused us a bit of grief and maybe cost us a couple of games, but it’s just something we need to improve on.”

The Crows spent extra time on their goalkicking during their training run at a rain-soaked AAMI Stadium on Wednesday, but Sloane said it was impossible for the players to replicate the pressure of game day.

“The set shot you have on game day is a lot tougher than anything you can do at training. We can do as much of that as we like, but we’ve really got to nail it on game day,” he said.

Patrick Dangerfield, who booted 1.2 against the Tigers, will have extra time to practise his goalkicking after being ruled out of Sunday’s clash with the Western Bulldogs with a broken hand.

Young forward Jack Gunston is also in some doubt with a hip complaint.

Defender Graham Johncock will return to the side, having served a one-match ban for rough conduct, and injury-hit forward Chris Knights is also in the selection mix.

Captain Simon Goodwin has discarded the moon boot protecting his injured ankle, but will not be available for selection until at least next week. 

Veteran Andrew McLeod also failed to train and will join Goodwin on the sidelines for another week.

Goodwin has already announced that he’ll retire at the end of the season and Sloane said his teammates were hopeful he hadn’t played his last game for the club.

“It would be good to see Goody make a return for a couple of games at the end of the year,” he said.

“It would be good to send Goody off with a farewell game or something like that. The supporters would love it and I’m sure the whole footy world would enjoy seeing him finish on a high.”