ADELAIDE young gun Sam Kerridge believes the Crows can take a confidence boost from Thursday night's loss to Geelong despite fading badly in the final term.
The Crows hit the front early in the fourth quarter on the Cats' home turf, before Geelong responded with the last six goals of the game to win by 38 points.
Kerridge says there were plenty of positives to take from the clash, as the Crows fight for a return to finals in 2014.
"To really match it with Geelong right up until the last little bit was obviously great signs," Kerridge said.
"Obviously, Geelong in Geelong is a tough road trip, it's one of the toughest ones in the game. But we did fight right until the end, we did do a lot of things right.
"We just didn't do what we needed to do when it mattered, and unfortunately we just fell away there towards the end."
Crows coach Brenton Sanderson lamented his side's inability to win the contested ball in the final term, and Kerridge said Adelaide was confident of running over the top of Geelong at three-quarter time.
"We've done a lot of running over the pre-season, and something we try and pride ourselves on is finishing late in quarters," said Kerridge, who was selected by Adelaide with pick 29 in the 2011 NAB AFL draft.
"Unfortunately that didn't quite hold up on last night's efforts, but we really keep working on that throughout the week, training really hard and continuing to work on that area."
Patrick Dangerfield came in for some close checking from Geelong's Cam Guthrie on Thursday night, but Kerridge said it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"’Danger's’ a quality player and he's always going to some attention, it's just something that he's got to get used to," he said.
Speculation about Dangerfield's future has intensified this week, but Kerridge believes the Victorian will re-sign to stay a Crow.
"I'm sure Patrick will make his mind up when he's ready to, and I'm sure everyone's hoping that he stays in Adelaide," he said.
"I can't see why he wouldn't – he loves it over there."
