Brodie Smith says Adelaide is ready for Round One after learning some lessons from its hard fought 25-point win over Gold Coast on Friday night.

The rebounding defender was one of the Crows’ best in humid, slippery conditions at Metricon Stadium.

Adelaide dominated the overall possession count but were beaten by the Suns in contested ball and also conceded more inside 50s.

Smith said there were some good signs but that his team's consistency needed to improve.

“It was a good hit-out and it was good to get the win, but we spoke about it after the game that our consistency wasn’t there throughout the game,” Smith said.

“We had some really good patches where we were on and we were really damaging, but there were a few patches there where they kicked a couple of goals in a row that we weren’t very happy with, so we touched on that and we will work on that in the next couple of weeks.”

It was the players’ first chance to experience the new interchange cap of 90 rotations and Smith said it might take some time to get adjust to.

“[The rotation cap] combined with the heat of the Gold Coast and the humidity [meant] it was pretty solid and I know by the end of the game a few of the boys were pretty tired,” Smith said.

“Once the year goes on we will get more used to it, we’ve put a lot of work in over the pre-season so I think we will be fine and we will adjust to it pretty quickly.”

Despite the mixed team performance, Smith said he was confident heading into the start of the premiership season.

“Last night I thought we ran the game out pretty well considering the conditions and we will go into Round One really confident to attack the season,” he said.

“Competition for spots is on and I wouldn’t want to be a coach Round One because there are a lot of guys putting their hand up to play and that’s great for the squad and it’s great for natural competition.”

Smith backed Brad Crouch to put his hand up for selection after the midfielder dominated the Club's SANFL trial with 40 possessions.

“It’s a conversation he will have to have with the fitness guys but we are all dying to have him back, we know what he can do and we’ve seen what he’s done during the summer in training so the sooner we get Brad back the better.”