ADELAIDE defender Phil Davis says his side’s inability to play consistent, four-quarter footy is the main reason its season has started so poorly.

Adelaide was beaten all over the ground for three quarters against North Melbourne on Saturday night, including a goalless second term, before turning in a last-quarter rally and falling just nine points short.

“It’s obviously very disappointing, we showed what kind of footy we can play in that last quarter, we kicked six or seven goals but we’re just disappointed we can’t produce that effort for four quarters,” Davis said after the match.

“If we’re honest with ourselves the first three quarters just weren’t up to scratch.

“How we played up to three-quarter time just wasn’t good enough. The last quarter was good but if you want to be a good team like we should be then you have to maintain that for four quarters.

“We’re not quite there yet but we’re not too far off. We’re a good football team and we’ll get our four quarters soon.”

After the match, a clearly frustrated Simon Goodwin brought his charges into a huddle and looked to be imploring his side to use the final quarter as a catalyst for the rest of the season.

“He (Goodwin) just said to stick at it and that the last quarter shows that we can play well if we want,” Davis said of the skipper’s address.

“In that quarter we got our hands on the ball first, we moved the ball a bit faster and we got our forwards one on one.

“There’s some good forwards down there and they can kick some goals. We just used a it a lot better in that term.

Davis spent most of the game matched up on mercurial forward Aaron Edwards and kept the former West Coast Eagle to two goals.

He is one of a host of Crows youngsters to be blooded this season and with Chris Schmidt, Tony Armstrong and Matthew Jaensch is among a group still yet to play 10 career games.

“I’d obviously much rather be playing in a few more wins but I’m going along okay,” Davis said of his debut season.

“There’s still a lot of areas for me to improve on but I’m just trying to improve every week.”

Adelaide will now look towards their home match against the Lions next Sunday, where they’ll be hoping to chalk up just their second win of the season.

“We’ll assess Brisbane during the week - we’re just disappointed with tonight’s effort at the moment,” Davis said,

“We’ll regroup now and give ourselves the best opportunity we can next week.”

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