Adelaide's self-belief remains intact despite the humiliation of their heavy defeat at home to AFL flag favourites Geelong, according to midfielder Nathan van Berlo.

Touted pre-match as a fair chance of at least getting close to the Cats on the night, Adelaide were blown apart in a 68-point loss that could just as easily have been 168, so great was the gulf between the sides.

There was an injury worry too after Brent Reily limped off with a medial ligament strain that will keep the accident-prone midfielder out for at least a month.

Geelong have made a habit of beating opponents up between the ears as well as on the scoreboard over the past two seasons.

But van Berlo said Adelaide's "culture" was strong enough to overcome the strain of three consecutive losses in time to put on a show against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.

"It is very disappointing when you come off a loss like that, where you feel like you've had a real go but the scoreboard says you've been blown out of the water really," van Berlo said.

"To some extent we know what that feels like, a couple of years ago when we were playing like that we felt like we were doing that to sides week in week out and it's certainly not a good feeling to have.

"I think self-doubt creeps in if your culture's not strong enough to keep it out and we're very lucky, the players feel our culture's that strong we can keep backing ourselves and feel confident in the game plan we've got, how well it works and what it does to opposition teams.

"We just know we've got to be more consistent at that and be prepared to play it for four quarters - the self doubt certainly isn't wavering in the group."

Structurally the Crows have the twin concerns of a midfield not currently best deployed to play the attacking style Neil Craig demands, meaning they have been poor in delivering to a forward line that remains problematic.

Van Berlo agreed that the sight of small forward Richard Doyglas caught in a marking contest with three taller Cats defenders, as happened more than once, did not make for a pretty sight.

"It felt like that a bit for most of the game, they just seemed to be able to create an extra number to many contests, an extra couple of numbers," he said.

"I'm not really sure why that is, we'll have to go through our review and go through how we can deal with that.

"I think yeah our forward line didn't work as well as we'd like on the weekend and the last couple of weeks but that's not only due to the personnel we had up there, it's also due to the delivery they get from the midfielders, and if there's real heat in the midfield it makes it hard for us to execute."

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