Adelaide coach Neil Craig wants his men to know that near enough isn't good enough, despite plaudits for scaring the life out of AFL frontrunners Collingwood.

The Crows lost by three points to the Magpies at the MCG on Saturday night, doing what few teams have done to Collingwood this season in out-pressuring them and limiting their scoring firepower.

Coupled with a ferocious tackling effort, Adelaide led at every change and forced Collingwood's forward line into regular misfire.

But the Pies managed to fall in 6.18 (54) to 7.9 (51), thanks to a magic late Alan Didak goal to tie things up, and three successive behinds to give them a margin.

While admitting how pleased he was with his side's effort, Craig was wary of his young players being given too much praise for not coming up with a win.

"We need to make sure close enough is not good enough," Craig said.

"It's a very dangerous situation to get into otherwise it becomes part of your culture - good effort, but never get there.

"It's important we run to the line with the players ... it's important we keep pushing hard.

"You always need to try to get a winning culture."

Collingwood rival Mick Malthouse believes Craig is on the right track, praising the Crows coach as "totally underestimated".

"He does a fantastic job and it's never easy to coach against him," Malthouse said.

"They were desperate to win ... I thought Adelaide had the majority of the better players."

The Crows had just one worry out of the match - youngster Will Young injured his shoulder and will have scans on Monday.

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