Adelaide coach Neil Craig says nullifying Essendon's speed will be decisive in Saturday night's AFL encounter.

Craig believes the Bombers present a similar challenge to the Crows that Melbourne did last week.

"They play with similar gusto and speed as Melbourne," Craig said.

"They are probably a bit more advanced in their capacity to execute it because they have been together a bit longer and Melbourne are still learning that.

"It will be a big challenge for us again to be able to handle that speed, they come at you quickly and try and cut through you.

"We'll need to be right on our game, as we were last week ... but that is last week, it's no guarantee that will happen this week."

The Crows, in arguably their best performance of a bleak season, eclipsed Melbourne by 44 points to lodge their fourth win.

They will seek to win consecutive games for the first time this year against the Bombers at AAMI Stadium, but Craig said he had never lost faith in his game plan.

"Internally, I have never lost faith in it," he said.

"Externally, I can understand why there have been some questions on it."

Craig said getting a competitive effort from his players was crucial to his game style.

"We have made some modifications to it, but in the end, if you don't get the first part right, everything else falls apart," he said.

"And then if you jump at shadows and try and fix things that fall apart but don't fix the thing that underpins everything else, well then you are making the wrong decisions."

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