Adelaide coach Don Pyke pinched a line from a classic Divinyls song to sum up his feelings after the Crows' three-point loss to Hawthorn: "There's a fine line between pleasure and pain."
Pyke was understandably disappointed to lose to the Hawks after his team had led by 15 points with seven minutes to go at the MCG on Friday night.
But he was very proud of his players' effort to push Hawthorn to the brink, with the reigning premier only setting up its victory in the dying seconds when man-of-the-match Paul Puopolo calmly converted his fifth goal.
Pyke said Friday night's game had also shown Adelaide belonged on the same stage as the competition's heavyweights.
"We came here with a clear intent, which was to get the four points. We fell short which is disappointing, but as they say there's a fine line between pleasure and pain isn't there?" Pyke said.
"I learnt that we've got the capacity to compete at the high end, which is pleasing against quality opposition and so hopefully that gives our players a belief in the way they play and what they may be capable of doing.
"You lose by under a goal generally you've done a lot right, so for us it's important that we reflect on what we did well tonight, but understand we've got to improve in certain areas to be able to make sure that next time we get the right result."
Pyke did not notice his team make any glaring structural errors in the final seven minutes of the game after Luke Brown kicked the Crows' last goal, saying some untimely skill errors had created opportunities the Hawks had taken.
Friday night's game marked the third time this season the Crows have conceded a score of more than 100 points.
Pyke admitted allowing opponents to score so freely was "not ideal" and said the Crows were working on becoming stingier.
"We've identified the areas we want to keep getting better at and that's one we'll keep working away on," Pyke said.
"We'll look at the source of those (scores) and we'll review it on tape and see exactly where they're coming from and how we can adjust that.
"In fairness, we played a quality opposition tonight and they're going to do that at times to us.
"We've got to make sure we play consistently for longer."
