CRITICISM of Adelaide's effort and intensity from acting co-captain Rory Sloane cut Sam Jacobs deep, but the ruckman hopes the brutal honesty will motivate the side in Saturday night's clash against North Melbourne.

The Crows have been unable to string together two solid games this year, with their last six games alternating wins and losses.

The club's latest loss against Fremantle saw it give up a two-point lead at half-time to surrender in the second half and lose by 40 points.

On his return to Adelaide on Monday Sloane questioned the intensity and drive of his team in that second half, saying a poor mindset was partly to blame.

Jacobs said it was embarrassing to have such fundamental elements of the game doubted.

"I did hear Sloaney say that … it's not something, individually as a player, that you want put on you," Jacobs said.

"We're putting good games together and good four-quarter efforts every second week.

"The players are definitely trying [their] best out there, but for whatever reason we're just not able to do it consistently enough.

"It's something we've got to change and we've got to do it straight away this week and hopefully put in a really good four-quarter effort."

Adelaide sits two wins out of the eight and with seventh-placed North in a group of three teams on seven wins, the importance of victory against the Kangaroos on Saturday night cannot be understated.

A win would pull the Crows within touching distance of eighth spot, whereas a loss would all but finish their season with just nine games remaining.

Despite the mounting pressure, Jacobs insisted the club would stick by its game-plan in the belief that, if properly executed, it produced match-winning football.

"We're certainly not going to throw the game-plan out because we do know it works," he said.

"When we do execute it we know it holds up against good teams.

"We've got full belief that when we do play our right footy it is going to be good enough and it is going to hold up when it matters."

Jacobs' duel against North Melbourne big man Todd Goldstein will prove crucial at Adelaide Oval.

Last week Dockers giant Aaron Sandilands dominated around the ground as well as in the ruck, collecting 20 disposals, taking eight marks and managing 38 hit-outs.

Adelaide's 26-year-old ruckman said he'd be tested again this week.

"I love playing against 'Goldy' (Goldstein) because we always do have plenty of good battles," he said.

"We're pretty comparable in the way we came through together and the way we like to play.

"Hopefully I can get my hand to it and give our midfielders first use because making sure we're playing it in our forward half's going to be important.

"He's just a really good competitor, Goldy, hopefully I can get him on a bad day."