Adelaide coach Don Pyke has defended his star player Rory Sloane after the midfielder was again locked down by a hard tag.
Sloane has been shut down by a tagger in consecutive losses, including Saturday night's shock 41-point defeat to Melbourne.
He collected only 11 disposals, tagged out of the game by one-time teammate Bernie Vince.
Vince's tag came a week after North Melbourne deployed similar tactics on the Crows' prime mover with similar success.
And while it's no coincidence both of Sloane's quiet games have been in losses, Pyke says the defeats aren't the fault of his best on-baller.
"We rely on an even contribution," Pyke said after the loss to the Demons.
"I sit here when we have won games of footy and talk about that even contribution, well tonight we didn't get an even contribution.
"It's not about one player. It's about our playing group playing the way we know were capable of."
Pyke said Sloane tried everything to break the Vince tag.
"He went forward, to the wing, he was on-ball, he was trying to make two-v-ones - he did a range of things. It didn't work for him," he said.
Vince's teammates also made a beeline for Sloane at any opportunity in the Adelaide Oval fixture.
"It wasn't just to put Rory off," Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said,
"We gave Bernie the job but ultimately as a team we wanted a role completed.
"And Bernie played his part in that and the rest of the team did as well."
