Adelaide onballer Scott Thompson has defended coach Neil Craig, saying the players must accept responsibility for their capitulation to Port Adelaide.

Craig has been criticised for failing to adjust his tactics as Port came from 34 points down midway through the second quarter to defeat the Crows by 32 points on Saturday night.

Port got on an astonishing roll, kicking 13 of 14 goals to over-run Adelaide.

But Thompson said the Crows' failure to win the contested ball, rather than any tactical shortcoming, led to the loss.

"At the end of the day, people are going to point the finger at the coach," Thompson said on Monday.

"As a player we have got to take a large chunk of the responsibility.

"He (Craig) is not out on the ground, he can't kick the goals for us, he can't win the ball for us, that falls back to the playing group.

"When we stick to the contested ball for four quarters ... it will take a lot of pressure off the coach."

Thompson dismissed suggestions Craig didn't have back-up plans.

"I don't think you need a plan B if you execute plan A correctly," he said.

But the star midfielder conceded they were still puzzled as to why they couldn't produce consistent competitive efforts.

"The thing we need to do now is get that (competitiveness) ingrained in the group so we can produce it over four quarters of football and when we do that I think we're going to be a very good side," he said.

"It's definitely a challenge to have young players come in and be able to do it consistently straight away.

" ... It's not ingrained in the group at the moment and we'll keep working towards getting it ingrained in the group, the way we want to contest the ball, the way we want to move the ball around the ground.

"What are we, three games into a 22 game season - there is still a lot of footy to be played.

"We have well and truly got the depth in the team to be able to produce the goods and when we do get itat a four quarter consistent level of footy, we'll be able to challenge any side in the competition."

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