Adelaide captain Travis Dodd has admitted his side has left itself with a mountain to climb to defeat Melbourne in the Major Semi-Final after the 2-0 loss in the first leg on Saturday.
Dodd said the players were bitterly disappointed with their performance in the home leg where goals from Carlos Hernandez and Danny Allsopp put Melbourne well and truly in the driver’s seat for a home Grand Final. But both he and coach Aurelio Vidmar are adamant the team needs to stay positive.
“Everyone’s pi–ed off,” Dodd said. “We’re not happy about the result. It’s going to be tough to process it all, but this tie is not dead. We’ve got to go to Telstra Dome and we’ve got a mountain to climb there, but we have to remain positive. Anything is possible.”
“You have to have the belief in yourself. We’ll go over there with that and try and get the result. It’s not an easy task but if we want to host a home Grand Final, we know what we have to do.”
Vidmar, clearly disappointed with his team’s efforts, said that the Reds’ mindset this week in the wake of Saturday’s loss was vital.
“I still think that the tie is still alive. Obviously it’s going to be extremely difficult. But we still need to go out there and battle for another 90 minutes,” he said.
“They’ve got to stay positive. If you are just going to give up now then don’t bother turning up next week. We’ll go out there and fight for another 90 minutes, and hopefully turn it around.”
Vidmar still believes firmly that he has the personnel to win the title despite the fact his team has been beaten by Melbourne four times this year.
“I think on song, we are as good as anyone, but certainly in this match we weren’t,” he said. “They don’t go out there to perform badly. They had a bad night, that’s what it is, we need to bounce back very quickly.”
Dodd said the Reds must learn from the mistakes they made in the first leg, pinpointing a lack of ball retention in the midfield as key to improving their fortunes.
“We turned too much ball over in the midfield. We got into dangerous areas, but the crosses didn’t come in. In and around the box, instead of pulling the trigger, we’re overplaying the ball. We are just trying to complicate everything,” he said.
Vidmar will have a few selection headaches this week after confirming that Kristian Sarkies will likely miss Saturday’s match with an ankle injury, while Michael Valkanis has a calf strain.
