Adelaide coach Neil Craig rates his side's performance as only a bare pass midway through season 2007, and insists playing style, rather than fit personnel, is the key to improving.

The Crows flew to the Gold Coast on Friday for their Saturday night meeting with the liberated Kangaroos, who have surged up the ladder via the sort of attacking football Craig is trying to relocate within his squad.

In the spirit of the midterm report cards that tend to written in June, Craig was asked to assess the Crows, who with six wins and five defeats are mired in midtable, so far this year.

"The worst case scenario would be 6-6, we want to go 7-5; so it's probably 60 per cent - or six or seven out of 10," he said.

"We think we've still got a lot of improvement to do, with getting some personnel back but, more importantly, the way we play the game.

"This time last year we were travelling a lot better (9-2), so hopefully we can add some more to our game on the attacking side and get back to playing the sort of footy we want to play.

"We're certainly not doing that at the moment."

Whether or not Adelaide can play a better style of football without prime mover Simon Goodwin will be severely tested by the Kangaroos, particularly now that their various tagging players have one less midfielder to think about.

The Crows need to find a way to help attacking midfielder Scott Thompson shake the attention of his minder, something they failed to do against Melbourne two weeks ago.

Chris Knights is another developing ballgetter sure to be pressured by the Kangaroos now that Goodwin is unavailable.

"Scott Thompson or Tyson Edwards or Chris Knights it's just a great opportunity for those guys to pick up experience, and probably the sooner that happens, the better," Craig said.

© 2009 AAP
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