No excuses for straight-sets finals exit: Crows captain

Among the Brownlow medal favourites, he was below his best in Adelaide's 34-point semi-final loss to Hawthorn and 24-point defeat to Collingwood in a qualifying final.

"It's a long season and everyone is dealing with different things so I can't say that as an excuse," Dawson told reporters on Monday.

Asked if he would need surgery, Dawson replied: "I have to chat to the doctors over my medical and figure out what the go is.

"But that's no reason for me to make any excuses. I played OK but not probably to the level that I would have hoped.

"It comes with challenges, to get to this time of year, and you have got to be ready for that ... you want to play your best footy when it matters and myself and as a group, we weren't able to do that."

Dawson also downplayed the impact of a batch of Crows players, as many as six, suffering from the 'flu for the Collingwood game.

"It's part of footy and part of like, everyone balances sickness every now and then, but it's definitely not the reason why we couldn't get the job done," he said.

"It is frustrating, it's not ideal, but it's nature for the beast.

"It's challenging, footy is challenging, these things happen, so you just got to find a way to deal with it and move on."

Adelaide's squad started exit meetings with hierarchy on Monday with the club's all-time leading goalkicker Taylor Walker weighing whether to play on next season.

"As a fan of his, as a teammate, as a great mate of his, I would love him to go around again," Dawson said.

"But obviously it's up to him and the club to work through that.

"I can't put words in his mouth but I'm sure it (the finals results) has probably kept the fire under his belly a little bit to keep him going.

"We'll wait and see ... I've got no idea, to be honest."

Dawson said the Crows collectively would continue to support Izak Rankine in the off-season.

Rankine, suspended for the finals for a homophobic slur, has served three games of his four-match ban.

"Obviously there was a distraction but it's definitely not the reason why we didn't succeed," Dawson said.

"That's what we've been juggling with the last few weeks, is obviously making sure that he's right as a human being, but then challenging the behaviour that he obviously did - and we know it was a mistake and he knows that."