Two games, two losses and suddenly Adelaide coach Neil Craig is facing the same kinds of questions that have dogged his Melbourne counterpart Dean Bailey over the past two AFL seasons.

Craig's training methods, tactics and recruiting have been called into question and the doubters will only grow in number and noise should the Crows trip up against the Demons at the MCG on Sunday.

Melbourne have been the league's poorest side by a distance in recent times, but their pushing of Collingwood in round two suggested light on the horizon, provided Bailey can keep his men hungry.

Against Adelaide they sense a win against a team highly rated at the start of the year, but handicapped by injuries and underdone players.

Captain Simon Goodwin will be ginger at best after a limited training week due to a corked knee, while the inclusion of Chris Knights after a foot stress fracture is both a curse and a blessing as the hard-running left footer will be short of touch.

"We're playing a club that I think most pundits would have in the top eight. I think some have got them in the top six," said Bailey.

"But for us, again it's the consistency of last week's performance, we need to do all those things from last week and do them as well, if not better, to get the result we're after."

For his part, Craig has emphasised satisfaction with his list and tactics, refusing to use injuries as the obvious excuse.

He is also focused on the many things his players must do better, rather than burdening them with talk about how important it is to defeat Melbourne and repel a rising tide of doubt.

"We talk about it but I don't want to keep talking to the players about the win and why we need it," he said.

"What I should be talking to them about is the things we need to improve at to do better to get the result.

"The outside world wants to talk about the result, I understand that and so they should but I can't afford to keep doing that in here because we've got to talk about the how, not the why."

Asked whether the Crows would seek to "break" Melbourne early, Craig noted that fast starts had done his men no good in the first two weeks - accompanied as they were by inaccurate kicking.

"Do we want a really hard, fast start? We've had that twice in the first two weeks, our start against Fremantle was very good, our start against Sydney in our opinion we could've been up 20 points to two," he said.

"So our starts are not a problem, it is our capacity to sustain, keep at it, keep on the job, keep fit players on the park, that we need to keep homing in on."

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