Adelaide Assistant Coach Scott Burns says the Crows’ final-quarter fightback came too late, as they fell by six points to Gold Coast on Saturday night.

The Crows found themselves 29 points down at three-quarter time, before rallying and almost pinching the game, but the siren won out at People First Stadium.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Burns said “the damage was done early”, and the visitors should not have relied on a comeback to win them the game.

“I think Nicksy summed it up pretty well post-game - we were pretty disappointed - we wanted to come out a little bit better than what we did,” Burns said.

“Gold Coast were very good early and we couldn’t quite match them on occasions.

“The damage was done early, unfortunately.

“We think we can be a lot better than what we’ve performed.”

Burns said the Crows’ pressure in the clash with the Suns was not where it needed to be and that it would be a focus ahead of their first home game for 2024 against Geelong on Friday night.

“I thought they handled the ball well and I thought our pressure to get at them was below par for us,” Burns said.

“I think that can certainly ramp up a fair bit and when we do play our best football we certainly attack the opposition with vigour and create turnovers but it wasn’t there like we would’ve liked.

“It was as clean as I’ve seen a team for a long time, Gold Coast across half-back and through the midfield.

“Their (the Suns’) strengths unfortunately, we couldn’t quite dissect that or bring that down to give us an advantage at times.”

Adelaide will now turn its attention to its Round Two game against Geelong at Adelaide Oval on Friday night at 7.10pm.

Tickets available here.