As Josh Rachele stepped onto GMHBA Stadium ahead of Adelaide’s game against Geelong, he had a clear focus - lift his defensive intent and embrace the contest.

The young Crow was bracing for a Cats side boasting one of the strongest midfields in the competition and he was determined to meet the challenge.

After a week of honest conversations with his coaches, Rachele went into the clash with a renewed mindset.

What followed was a career-best performance which included a team-high 31 possessions, six score involvements, five marks, seven clearances, seven inside-50s, 651 metres gained and a goal. 

Speaking to AFC Media after the Crows’ eight-point loss, Rachele said he was determined to do his part for the team, while establishing himself as a midfielder.

“I had some really good chats with the coaches this week purely on my defence, I really wanted to work on a couple of things, just getting back to a body,” Rachele said.

“We know Geelong has a quality midfield in Max Holmes and Bailey Smith and Tom Atkins, so I really wanted to match it with those guys.

“I knew it was going to be a really contested game, it wasn’t going to be much uncontested possessions. For me, it was just about playing to my strengths and trying to put my hard hat on and get the job done in the contest.

“It’s (the career-high game) a pretty nice achievement, but I guess unfortunately we didn’t get the result in the end.”

The Crows entered the match hoping to break a 14-game losing streak at the venue and fought hard despite losing 903 games of experience with Captain Jordan Dawson, veterans Rory Laird and Taylor Walker and recruit Callum Ah Chee all on the sidelines.

Without the Skipper, Rachele took on a role predominantly in the midfield, and in a match defined by pressure and winning the hard ball, he didn’t shy away from the contest, finishing the game with a black eye.

“I’ve copped a massive shiner on my eye, so I can barely see out of my left eye, so not feeling too good in that space, it’s pretty swollen at the moment, so we’ll see how we go tomorrow,” Rachele said.

“I was pretty proud of the boys, I thought they fought really hard all day. We had over 900 games of experience missing, so I thought us younger boys really stepped up.

“We’ve got a new wave of players and it was great to see so many of those younger boys step up tonight and really try and lead the way in their unique way.

“I think it was a great opportunity. It was disappointing we didn’t get the win, but we’ll take a lot of positives out of that game.”

The Crows will now have an eight-day break before a clash against Fremantle at Adelaide Oval on Good Friday.

Rachele said the team was keen to return to playing in front of its home crowd but was also impressed with how loud Crows fans had been in the two away games so far this season.

“I think in the away games we've played so far against Collingwood and now against Geelong, we’ve definitely heard the (Crows) crowd up and about and we are really thankful for our loyal away supporters,” Rachele said.

“We definitely heard the buzz and it was getting us up and about with that momentum, so hopefully they keep coming out for our future away games.

“It has been pretty hard with the back-to-back six-day breaks, so we will recover well Friday, Saturday, Sunday and get ready to review Monday.

“We did so many positive things (against Geelong), we’ll keep building on that and we’ll look forward to coming back to AO and hopefully getting a win against Fremantle.”