Matthew Nicks reckons the pain was necessary.
Adelaide's coach concedes his club wasn't ready for the heat last year when crashing from the finals with consecutive losses.
"We were found wanting," Nicks told AAP.
"There's preaching on what it means to be the best side of the competition.
"And it's preparing yourself for that moment, under the most immense fatigue and pressure, that you're going to be able to perform at your best.
"That has been something we've talked about for a number of years.
"Until you experience that, that's words. But that's not words anymore ... it's actually a lived experience."
And it's an experience, he believed, that would only benefit the Crows as Nicks embarks on his seventh season at the helm.
"Ultimately, there are a lot of different components that went in to us not performing at our best," he said.
"Being overawed by that environment, the opposition you're playing against are at their peak.
"Our lack of experience in those moments, from a games point of view, I think in the end is one that is probably the largest to stand out for us."
Nicks sensed a "different hunger" entering the fresh season among his Crows, last year's minor premiers.
"We're in a position where our group are hardened," he said.
"Go through any data ... it's very, very rare occasions if you don't have experience that you're going to rip through a final series and get it done.
"There is a need sometimes to go through that pain. It's a hard one that we've now gone through and we no doubt will be better for it."
But Nicks was cognisant that returning to the finals wasn't guaranteed, despite his squad boasting considerable strengths.
His forward line, based around talls Riley Thilthorpe, Taylor Walker and Darcy Fogarty, and defence were ranked second-best in terms of scores for and against respectively in last year's home-and-away season.
The Crows recruited dual Brisbane premiership player Callum Ah Chee but have already lost influential defender Mark Keane (broken leg) and emerging star Dan Curtain (dislocated knee chap) for at least the initial seven rounds of the premiership season.
The biggest knock on Nicks' side is in the midfield: can his on-ballers eclipse the best in the business such as reigning back-to-back premiers Brisbane?
But the coach believed his midfield, led by captain and All-Australian Jordan Dawson, was only "scratching the surface" on its potential.
Nicks forecast more on-ball time for Josh Rachele, who missed most of last year with a knee injury, and increasing influence from Izak Rankine, who missed last year's finals while serving a four-game suspension for a homophobic slur.
And he predicted growth from midfielders Jake Soligo, entering his fifth season; and Sam Berry and Luke Pedlar, both entering their sixth.
"Where a lot of the noise comes externally is about do we have that big-bodied one midfielder who's dominant, that a lot of the teams seem to have," he said.
"And it's not necessarily a big-bodied mid ... Gold Coast have five first-round picks, so that's always going to be challenging if we're going to compare ourselves.
"We feel like we've got a great midfield."
