AFTER a third straight capitulation, this time at the hands of the Sydney Swans, Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson admits he's close to declaring season 2014 to be in crisis.
The Crows are now winless after three games and, alarmingly, the margins are expanding.
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Their 38-point loss to Geelong in round one was followed by last weekend's 55-point loss to Port Adelaide, now followed by Saturday's 63-point hiding by the Swans.
The Cats booted the final six goals of the game, the Power kicked 12 of the last 15 and the Swans 12 of the last 13.
Sanderson said the football world would now see what he, and his football club, was made of.
"We're not hitting the panic button yet but we're certainly starting to lean on it a little bit," Sanderson said.
"We'll keep looking at the make-up of our team, we'll keep looking at our squad…but we can't keep capitulating like we have.
"It's almost like we're teasing ourselves…once again we got back to within a couple of points and from that point on we got embarrassed.
"It's a great opportunity for players now, and that's across the whole team, to stand up.
"We'll see what our group's made of and we'll see what I'm made of. We’re coming from a long way back now - we can't let the competition get too much more in front of us."
A rare highlight for Sanderson and Crows fans was the form of key forward James Podsiadly.
Although he only booted one goal, Podsiadly worked tirelessly in attack and higher up the ground, often having to take on multiple opponents to bring the ball to ground.
He lacked help from his teammates, but Sanderson was pleased with the effort from the 32-year-old.
"He provided a contest for us…I thought he was good for us today," Sanderson said.
"It was a better game than one goal, he was one of the few players that probably stood up today."
With Adelaide's state league side taking on North Adelaide in its SANFL season opener on Sunday, Sanderson said the likes of Lewis Johnston and Jason Porplyzia could press for selection against St Kilda next weekend.
"Maybe we need a couple of little things to go our way, but those little things don't add up to 50-point losses," he said.
"We need to fight it out better than we are.
"I still have an enormous amount of trust in the group that we should be better for four quarters.
"We do have a certain amount of guys injured and our state league side plays tomorrow so that's a great carrot to dangle in front of those players that if you play well tomorrow you're in line for selection against St Kilda."
