Adelaide’s finals exit serves as a "harsh” but necessary lesson in the Club’s journey to becoming one of the competition’s premier sides, according to Coaching Director Murray Davis.

The Crows rose from 15th in 2024 to first this season, before losing its two finals to Collingwood and Hawthorn, respectively.

Despite the result, Davis said the Crows’ finals campaign was not a failure, with many lessons learned that would hold the players in good stead.

“All is not lost,” Davis said.

“We know it was a really good season, we just talked a bit about how the game gives you feedback and certainly finals gives you feedback.

“Albeit it might seem really harsh lessons to learn, but they’ll be good lessons for our group.

“One thing I know about this group and working with Nicksy is that he’s done a great job at creating an environment where people go away and work hard on their games and I have no doubt that’s what everyone will do.”

Davis, who joined the Club in October last year after 13 years with reigning premier Brisbane, said becoming finals hardened took time and would use his experience with the Lions to help galvanise the side.

“Now that we’ve got some finals experience, it will hold us in good stead,” Davis said.

“In 2018 Brisbane finished 15th, then equal first, just second on percentage, and the same thing happened - two home finals Brisbane lost those two and went out in straight sets.

“The paths are similar, and the experience I had from (Brisbane) was probably that they weren’t quite ready.

“It took Brisbane probably six years of finals to finally win a Grand Final. I know that can sound like a lot of heartache for a lot of people, but Crows Members and supporters should be really proud of the fact we are playing finals again.”

Davis said the next steps for the coaching cohort would be reviewing the semi-final loss to the Hawks, with a focus on improving and returning to the finals in 2026.

“The feeling is a little bit of emptiness in a loss like that, it takes a little bit of time to process,” Davis said.

“It’s now really about licking our wounds a little bit, and mentally and physically freshening the players up and doing the catch-ups.

“We’ll get together collectively to make sure that we get ourselves back into this position and give us the best possible chance at getting back here again.”