Adelaide AFLW Senior Coach Matthew Clarke says his side is up for the challenge of playing fellow undefeated side Melbourne on Saturday.
The Crows will look to keep their unblemished record untouched when they battle the Demons at Norwood Oval, wearing their Pride guernseys once more.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Clarke said the game was an opportunity for two big Clubs and stars of the AFLW to go head to head.
“Clearly (Melbourne’s) form in the first three games has been good, so has ours, so that makes for an exciting match-up,” Clarke said.
“It’s one of the great privileges of playing footy is that you get to play in big matches.
“Hopefully that’s what this will be.
“As we saw with the North game, when you play good teams it will generally go down to the wire and we envisage that’s what it will take - a four quarter performance.”
Adelaide and Melbourne faced off twice in 2021 with both sides taking a win each - the Demons prevailed during the minor round at Casey Fields, while the Crows beat them in the preliminary final at Adelaide Oval.
Clarke said Melbourne posed a threat all over the ground and his defenders would need to work hard to contain the Demons’ dynamic forward line.
“It’s going to be a really great challenge, one that I know they’re really looking forward to,” Clarke said.
“Melbourne has added Taylor Harris, they’ve got Daisy Pearce, last year Kate Hore kicked three goals against us as a small forward… they’ve got some great assets and weapons down there.
“Our defenders, they’re looking forward to those challenges and to play against the really good players.
“(Adelaide’s defenders) are going to rely on some pressure from up the field so that the Melbourne midfielders don’t have enough time and space to get the ball cleanly to those really good players’ advantage.
“If we can provide that, then we’ll get it back to a 50-50 contest and just luckily we’ve got some pretty good players down there as well.
“There will be some great match-ups… there’s a footy game and we can get excited about it.”
The Crows take on Melbourne at Norwood Oval on Saturday, January 29 at 2.40pm ACDT.
