Adelaide's young players must win a battle between the ears if they are to help the Crows to a widely-expected victory over Port Adelaide in Sunday's AFL showdown at AAMI Stadium.

On paper and on form, it appears Adelaide have the out-of-sorts Power covered.

However the consistency of a maturing side can be difficult to attain, and many of the Crows' younger names had plenty of reason to feel pleased with themselves after notching a first win over the Eagles since 2005.

Defensive coach Ben Hart, a new addition to the Adelaide match committee alongside Matthew Clarke in 2008, went as far as saying the Eagles win represented the blueprint of how Adelaide wanted to play each week.

In short, it is a hard act to follow.

"It's always a challenge after a big game, you set yourself up for a performance, and if you happen to play well, which we did, there can be that letdown," he said.

"Hopefully the guys understand, especially the young kids, that that's a blueprint of how we want to play and how we want to go about it.

"One of the main things we've always been on about here, especially the last few years, is about the consistency of performance; you don't want to do it one day and shoot the lights out and then be nowhere the next day.

"It's about repeating that and being able to do it on a regular basis."

Helping the Crows in their task is the fact that over the past two years they have become a side that naturally does well when matched against Port Adelaide.

This is epitomised by fullback Ben Rutten, who has never been beaten by Power captain and spearhead Warren Tredrea in all their meetings.

Sunday's Tredrea will be fitter and more agile than the lumbering figure Rutten was able to curb on both occasions the teams met in 2007, and Hart said it was always possible the defence could be exposed if upfield pressure was relaxed.

"Sometimes it happens in footy you get sides that you match-up against well and players you match-up against well," Hart said.

"Ben does (match-up well on Tredrea), they probably play a similar way, both strong in the air and have strong bodies.

"A lot can happen if the ball is allowed to come down to him freely and with no pressure I'm sure he'll get a lot of it but if our midfield put on the pressure it can help Rutts out for sure."

Port Adelaide remained cagey about the fitness of ballgetter David Rodan.

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