The battle in the coach’s box at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night will be an interesting subplot of the match between Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs. 

The game will pit two rookie coaches, friends and former colleagues in Brenton Sanderson and Brendan McCartney head to head for the first time.

Sanderson was a player under McCartney - a long-serving assistant coach at Geelong - for six years and then joined his mentor on the coaching panel in 2007, working in tandem until McCartney followed Cats premiership coach Mark Thompson to Essendon last season.

Sanderson said the pair had developed similar coaching philosophies as a result of their time under ‘Bomber’ Thompson at Geelong.

“I’ve got enormous respect for Brendan McCartney,” Sanderson said.

“I think I sort of know how he coaches and he probably knows how I coach.

“’Macca’ and I have very similar philosophies to footy and that probably stems from the Mark Thompson era at Geelong.

“The things I think we’d both value would be very similar … so it’ll be a good challenge in the coach’s box, I’m sure.”

A noticeable similarity between the two teams was the emphasis on making the players tougher and stronger over the pre-season, with the aim of winning more contested ball in 2012.

“The Dogs do play a really high-intensity brand of footy, similar to us,” Sanderson said.

“There might be similarities in how ‘Macca’ and I coach, but we’ve got two different squads with different strengths, so it’ll be a (battle of) how we take advantage of things they don’t do so well and how they take advantage of the things we don’t do so well.

“Whether they can marry up, we’ll have to wait and see.

“I’m sure it’ll be entertaining and a good match for our members and supporters to come along and watch.”

The Crows players and coaches were able to watch the Dogs’ round one clash with West Coast during the flight home from the Gold Coast on Sunday.

The Dogs matched it with the Eagles - a top-four team from last season - for almost three quarters before being overrun and eventually going down by 49 points.

“We were really impressed by the Dogs,” Sanderson said.

“For three quarters, they really put it to the Eagles and the Eagles are a great side.

“We’ve got enormous respect for the Dogs. As soon as they can bring that intensity for four quarters, they’re going to be a hard side to beat.”

Another talking point of the match will be the battle between Crows tall forwards Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker, who combined to kick nine goals against the Suns, and a Bulldogs defence minus key defenders Tom Williams (shoulder) and Dale Morris (leg).

“They don’t have a couple of their key defenders, which is a big loss for them,” Sanderson said.

“We’ve got two big key forwards, who are in pretty good form … and that contest will be a game within the game, I’m sure.”

Reigning best and fairest winner Scott Thompson will play his 200^th AFL game against the Bulldogs on Saturday night.

Thompson played 39 games with Melbourne before being traded to Adelaide at the end of 2004.

The 29-year-old has since established himself as one of the premier midfielders in the competition, finishing second in the AFL for total disposals in 2011.

Sanderson said he expected the team to respond to the popular onballer's milestone this weekend.

“Anytime anyone plays 200 games, you would hope the group would lift for that individual,” he said.

“Sometimes you can read too much into milestone games, but I know our guys will be pretty wound up.

“Thommo has a lot of respect within the change rooms and I know the players all want to do well for his 200^th.”