Adelaide Assistant Coach Nathan van Berlo says the side’s poor start against Hawthorn made it tough to switch momentum.

The Crows were jumped by the Hawks in the first term and were staring down a 31-point deficit at the first break, before eventually going down by 32 points at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.

Speaking to the media on Monday, van Berlo said the side was disappointed with the result and would look to address the reasons behind the slow start.

“It's disappointing to start a game like that full stop against any opposition because you do that and you get yourself in the back foot straight away,” van Berlo said.

“When you don’t start well, you look into everything, whether that be preparation during the week, mindset, the travel, the opposition were up and going and we weren’t ready to match them.

“The disappointing thing was that we needed a break to respond and we’d like to think we can build a brand where we can respond and recognise in the quarter, get our contest and pressure up the level which we pride ourselves on.”

Despite a poor start, Adelaide launched a spirited fightback, kicking the first three goals of the second half, while holding Hawthorn goalless in the third quarter.

Van Berlo said the side’s fightback was one positive to take out of the match.

“We've spoken at length about our ability to stay in the battle for a long period of time,” van Berlo said.

In the vast majority of them, deep in the last quarter we've been right In games which says we're doing a lot of things right.

“Our ability to finish off our work and kick some easy scores and challenge opposition… Has been our work on.

“To think back to some games where we didn’t hit the scoreboard or we didn’t finish off our work in front of goals or missed that last connection, it changes the narrative around a lot of that and the results.

“We’ve been really pleased with our ability to stay in games but ultimately you want reward for effort.”