Adelaide’s sluggish starts are preventing the SANFL Crows from showing their true potential.

The fledgling State League Crows opened Saturday night’s clash with the first goal against West Adelaide, but surrendered six of the next seven majors to trail by 25 points at quarter time.

Adelaide battled gallantly to claw the margin back to just six points in the early minutes of the third term, but could not sustain the resurgence as the Bloods edged away to an eventual 37-point victory.

Defender Luke Thompson said the slow starts remained the side’s biggest concern.

“Our starts are an issue, so we’ve got to look at that and see what’s going on there,” Thompson told afc.com.au after the loss to West Adelaide.

“We are just struggling a little bit with our starts at the moment as a collective, so we’ve got to tidy that up a little bit.”

Adelaide has only won two first quarters from six starts in the SANFL this season, conceding almost five goals on average in opening terms alone in 2014.

Aside from the poor openings, Thompson said the young SANFL Crows have shown their best football can stand up against the heavyweights of the competition.

“It’s been tough at times, but we’ve also played some pretty good footy and you notice it from back there in defence,” Thompson said.

“Our second quarter was better tonight. We were able to win a bit more contested ball while keeping them from scoring with our defensive transition as well. That’s one thing we are working on pretty heavily at the Club at the moment.”

“Once we get our defensive principles down pat and we gel as a group for a few more weeks, I think we’ll start seeing some good results from it.”

Thompson, 23, has embraced a leadership role in Adelaide’s State League team this season. With captain Ian Callinan sidelined with a hamstring injury for the past fortnight, Thompson said he has enjoyed the responsibility of guiding the Club’s SANFL young guns.

“I’ve had to really step up and take a bit more ownership with the young boys like ‘Siggo’ (Sam Siggins) and ‘The Bull’ Jake Kelly,” he said.

“Our back six has had ‘Otto’ (Andy Otten) for a few of weeks and ‘Truck’ the other week, so there’s a couple of experienced blokes who have been good to play with for me personally to take my leadership to the next level.

“But we also had a fair number of younger boys in tonight, which is good for their development and our development as well.

“I’m really enjoying the role though.”

Adelaide’s next challenge is against reigning premiers Norwood at The Parade. Crows supporters are encouraged to go along and support the side live on Friday night, with Club ticketed members receiving free entry to the blockbuster clash.

After three successive defeats since the side’s historic victory over Central District last month, Thompson said the SANFL Crows were hungry to return to the winners list.

“The boys give 110 per cent every time and the attitude and work ethic is always there,” he said.

“The more we play together and gel as a group the better we are going to be. So we’ve just got to keep at it.”