LAST Saturday's surprise loss to West Coast might have sealed Adelaide's finals fate.
With four games remaining, star midfielder Scott Thompson acknowledged that even perfection might not be enough to steer the club to a finals berth.
The Crows sit a win out of the top eight but face a tricky game against the in-form Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Sunday before taking on Richmond (home), North Melbourne (away) and St Kilda (home).
Thompson said all he and his teammates could do was try and win each of their remaining games – the rest lay in the hands of the footy gods.
"In the context of the season it was a pretty important game for us and we just fell short," Thompson said.
"We'll control what we can control and that's obviously starting with beating Brisbane on the weekend.
"We've got four games to go and even if we win all four, there's still a chance we don't make it so it's up to us to control what we can.
"Whatever happens around that happens."
Although bitterly disappointed, Thompson said the Crows wouldn't spend too long beating themselves up over the 31-point loss to the Eagles that saw them fall out of the top eight.
"As far as confidence, I don't think it'll affect the group at all," he said.
"They just got a run on and, at the time, we weren't good enough to stop it.
"We'll review it and nut out the exact reasons for that, but there's still a lot of positivity and confidence within the group.
"Hopefully we can go up to Brisbane and get a win."
The 31-year-old has battled a back-related hamstring issue for the past several weeks and the injury forced him out of the club's win over Collingwood in round 18.
His week on the sidelines ended a streak of 99 consecutive games.
Coach Brenton Sanderson tipped Thompson's fitness would need to be monitored each week until the end of the season due to the unusual nature of his injury.
But the veteran said he had pulled up well from his 31-disposal performance and that he hoped to back it up against the Lions.
"It's frustrating because you want to run around, you want your body to feel good," he said.
"It's late in the year so I'm tipping a lot of guys are carrying niggles ... it probably will be a week-by-week thing for me.
"I got through the weekend's game and we'll approach this weekend's game and see how I'm feeling mid-week."
