IF YOU were to build the perfect wet-weather footballer from scratch, chances are the final product would look a lot like Sydney Swans midfielder Jude Bolton.

While many players struggle when the rain begins to fall, the 31-year-old veteran seems to find another level when the going gets tough.

Bolton worked tirelessly for the Swans in their rain-soaked clash against Adelaide on Saturday night, hurling himself at each contest with little regard to whom or what was coming the other way.

But for Jude Bolton, that's the only way he knows how.

"That's just basic footy," the 271-game champion said after the match.

"I grew up in Ballarat and it's pretty wet down there. You've just got to get in close.

"You can't get out in lane eight and try and win the footy so you've got to get in close."

The hard-nosed midfielder finished with a game-high 18 contested possessions, six tackles and seven clearances for the Swans, but it still was not enough to stop the resurgent Crows from pinching a seven-point victory against an inaccurate Sydney Swans outfit.

The Swans struggled in front of goal, managing only six from 20 scoring shots to kick themselves out of the contest.

Bolton felt the Swans were too slow in acclimatising to the atrocious conditions and in altering their game style to match.

"It was obviously really slippery in the first half. Really it's a game of yards in those conditions.

"We just didn't adjust well to it at all. We were over-handballing and overusing it.

"In the second half it cleared up a little bit and we just blazed away. We just didn't really adjust to the conditions.

"It was just disappointing not to come away with the four points."

The loss was the Swans' third consecutive defeat and dealt a huge blow to their top-four aspirations, but Bolton said the challenge was now ahead of the players to respond and return to their winning ways.

"We've got to get back on the horse really quickly and get back on the winner's list as soon as we can," he said.

"We've just got to get the quality of our training up. We didn't train as well on Thursday which probably led into the way we played on the weekend."

The Swans will be eager to make a statement next Saturday night against bottom-placed Gold Coast in their first-ever trip to Metricon Stadium.

Max Phillips covers news from AAMI Stadium for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_MaxPhillips