Adelaide are hoping a new ruck combination and a re-drilled midfield will correct their stoppage woes against Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.

Ivan Maric, the subject of a tongue-lashing by Crows coach Neil Craig against Geelong and a subsequent public apology, has been dropped to make way for Jon Griffin, who will partner Kurt Tippett.

Their work in the middle and around the ground will be closely monitored by Craig who wants more success with clearances from ball-ups and throw-ins, areas the Crows struggled with against St Kilda and the Cats.

"There's certain areas where we set up on the ground for a clearance where we are more vulnerable to lose the clearance," Craig said.

"So it's a matter of where we win the clearances, where are we losing them, and the scores from, for or against.

"In general, our clearances need to get better, and that includes centre bounces."

Opposed to Griffin and Tippett will be former Crows ruckman John Meesen, a gifted player who quit the Crows at the end of 2007 in search of greater opportunities elsewhere, despite still being wanted at West Lakes.

After a barren 2008, Meesen won his way into the Melbourne 22 a fortnight ago, and has since impressed with his tap work and athleticism, particularly in last week's win over Richmond.

"We were keen for John to stay, but in the end John made the decision he wanted an opportunity somewhere else, and to his credit it looks like he's been given an opportunity in Melbourne and he played quite well against Richmond," Craig said of Meesen.

"Aerobically he was sensational, I'm sure he still is, and got some reasonable skills so he could actually cover the ground.

"The reason we wanted him to stay was because he was still young. It can be a throwaway line but I think it's a factual line, that those bigger guys do take longer to develop and get up to the speed of the game and the movement of the game."

Neither Adelaide nor Melbourne can be rated as serious contenders for the AFL flag this year, but Craig argued there was still much for both sides to gain in terms of preparing themselves for bigger battles ahead.

"We all saw Melbourne's performance last week, particularly early against Richmond - I have huge respect for Dean Bailey and what he's trying to do with Melbourne," he said.

"Your final assessment as a team and as a club, will be against the best opposition in the competition - Melbourne will be saying the same, if they play well against us, they might say `yeah, but that's the Crows, they're 12th, so we need to play Geelong and St Kilda'.

"The best competition is your best assessment, but all competition in the AFL is good competition."

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