HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says his sidewas outclassed by a Crows side that was "simply outstanding".

"We need to acknowledge that they were outstanding tonight and we wereoutclassed.

"They were crisp with their ball use, they moved it quickly, they placedus under enormous pressure with the ball and, unlike them, we couldn't take theopportunities when they presented themselves.

"At half-time we were winning the clearances, we'd had the same amount ofpossessions as they had, we'd gone inside 50 the same amount of times they had,but their class to take the most of the opportunities they had was far superiorto ours.

"I thought they were simply outstanding. We'll learn from that."

Clarkson said he was surprised that Adelaidewas 7-6 before tonight, as he rates them "a much, much classieroutfit" than that suggests.

"I still expect they'll finish the year strongly and be in the top threeof four sides in the competition.

"The conditions that were presented tonight, they handled them much, muchbetter than what we did. Their touch of the footy for a wet and slippery nightwas nothing short of outstanding."

Hawthorn had no answer for the Crows midfield in particular, where five players(Tyson Edwards, Andrew McLeod, Scott Thompson, Simon Goodwin and Chris Knights)amassed an astounding 184 possessions between them - an average of 37 perplayer.

"If it's not McLeod getting the footy it's Goodwin. If you put a bloke onGoodwin then it's Edwards, and if you put a guy on him it's Thompson,"Clarkson lamented.

"They've got an outstanding array of talent through the middle of theground and across their half-back line and wings. They're very difficult tocounteract, and we're not the only side that's found that in the last twoyears."

While the Crows were outstanding, the Hawks had an "off night".

"We've looked at all the good sides in the competition over the last 18months; we want to get there ourselves as a side, (but) we're just a little bitoff it at the moment.

"We'll learn from it as much as we can. Three or four weeks ago we had agame against the Sydney Swans that we learned enormously from, and hopefully wecan learn from this one too and take some things out of it but move on prettyquickly to the Richmond game.

"It's a long hard slog. You've only got to look at the whole competitionfor how difficult it is from week to week. Brisbane beat West Coast tonight over in the west.

"I don't think there'd be a football tipster who would have tipped that; it'sjust extraordinary the way games can pan out now days and anyone can beat anyoneon their given day. It wasn't our day tonight."

Clarkson said the loss of Danny Jacobs and Chance Bateman before half-time hurtthe Hawks tonight, but both could play next week.