Adelaide coach Neil Craig remains steadfast in his determination to see out the toughest period of his career, despite the Crows crumbling to a sixth successive AFL defeat.

The Crows were given a 52-point pummelling by understrength Geelong at Skilled Stadium on Sunday - a match effectively over as a contest by quarter-time.

Adelaide remain cemented in the bottom four with just three wins from 13 matches and, for large parts of the match, were smashed by a Geelong side without eight first-choice players.

Craig will come under more pressure as a result of the defeat, especially considering how undermanned the Cats were.

Yet he remains committed to building the current group of players into a force, although the gap between their best and worst is chasm-like.

Craig wants to coach well beyond his eighth and most challenging season.

"My drive's stronger than ever," Craig said after the 19.11 (125) to 10.13 (73) defeat.

"We're building a side here. We're building something I believe's going to be very, very good. It's never going to be easy.

"My spirit, my endeavour, my enthusiasm has never been higher."

Adelaide's fate was sealed by quarter-time as the Cats ran amok, kicking seven goals to one in the opening term.

The Cats led by 46 by halftime and by as much as 80 midway through the final term.

Craig was pleased with his side's endeavour, especially late in the match as they booted five of the final six goals to reduce the margin to under 10 goals, but with little else in the performance.

"Next week against the Sydney Swans, that mentality (late in the game) needs to continue and be cemented in big-time, week after week," Craig said.

"Otherwise, we'll keep having great quarters of footy followed by unbelievably poor quarters of footy."

The Crows' injury woes also continue.

They lost Richard Tambling (illness) and Matthew Jaensch (back) before the match, and Ricky Henderson (concussion) and Chris Schmidt (hamstring) in the second half to lessen their ability to rotate through the interchange bench.

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