Adelaide's star power, deemed deficient by many in the aftermath of their 68-point surrender to AFL benchmark Geelong, will not be sapped further by the loss of Brett Burton to suspension.

Burton was cleared by the AFL match review panel for his collision with prone Cat Joel Selwood, after the panel concluded that Burton made contact with Selwood's shoulder rather than head in a clash that was unavoidable.

The verdict is a welcome relief to Adelaide, who appeared sorely lacking in players capable of dominating a game against the best of teams on Friday night, and will need all hands to battle Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.

Burton had a quiet night by his usual enigmatic standards, but he remains one of the Crows' few genuine matchwinners in a team built primarily on squeezing maximum returns out of mid-tier talent.

Commentators were more or less unanimous in their view that the Crows lack a matchwinner or three to put the premiership cream on the top of an otherwise well-constructed cake.

Admittedly the club is currently at the start of a rebuilding process likely to take two or three seasons, and young midfielder Nathan van Berlo grinned derisively at the questions about the level of talent on the Crows' list.

"We've got plenty of them, I think, we've got a hell of a lot of guys through there, young guys who can do it as well," van Berlo said.

"Jason Porplyzia, Richard Douglas, Bernie Vince, Simon Goodwin, Tyson Edwards, Brett Burton, I don't see that as a problem."

It will also be argued that much of Adelaide's best talent is yet to see the light of an AFL debut - Patrick Dangerfield, Taylor Walker and Jared Petrenko to name but three.

However the question of whether the Crows have enough pure talent in their keeping to challenge for the flag will keep harrying at the club until they can beat a team ranked above them in 2008 - something they are yet to do this season.

"Friday night, although a very disappointing result for us, what we can get out of it is certainly to see how good a side Geelong are and where we want to go - it certainly gives us an insight," van Berlo said.

"We just saw they're the best in the competition show us how it's done and the highest level I've played against so far in terms of the way they move the ball and play a really attacking style of footy.

"By knowing a standard you can sit there and measure ourselves against it - being amongst it gives you a more accurate measure.

"As a playing group we know our own expectations and we certainly feel very confident of what we can do and who we can play - we know we can match it against the best sides."

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