Eddie Betts says he’s enjoying the freedom of playing up the ground under new coach Phil Walsh.

Adelaide’s reigning leading goalkicker, Betts still played predominantly as a forward against North Melbourne, but also had bursts through the midfield, where he displayed his trademark clean hands and elusiveness at the stoppages.

The skilful 28-year-old collected 21 possessions (his equal-best as a Crow), took eight marks and laid a team-high seven tackles. He also kicked four goals and had four score assists to be one of the most influential players on the ground.

Walsh has demanded versatility in his players and Betts said he’d benefited from the change-up.

“I’ve been playing as a small forward my whole career and it’s a hard position to play,” Betts told FIVEaa.

“You’ve usually got an opponent, who nags you the whole game, so it’s good to get up the ground, get a few touches and get your confidence going.

“(If you’ve got players in a variety of roles) everyone needs to know what’s going on in that role and that’s what we’ve worked on over the pre-season. For me, I haven’t just been in the forward line doing that role I’ve also been up the ground and learning how to play wing and a bit on ball. I think it’s good for the team and my development too.”

Adelaide had nine different goalkickers in Round One, with Taylor Walker (six), Betts (four), Josh Jenkins (three), Rory Sloane and Patrick Dangerfield (two each) all kicking multiple goals.

A highlight of the Crows’ performance was the team’s willingness to share the ball, and hit-up a teammate in a better position. The unselfish Betts, who led the League in goal assists last season, said it was a focus.

“As a forward group, we want to get each other into the game and help each other out,” he said.

“We work together and we gel pretty well. We’ll see what happens this week against the Pies, but hopefully we can continue to do that all season.”

However, young Crow Charlie Cameron might’ve taken it to the extreme.

Betts, who is a mentor to the exciting forward, said he’d told Cameron to stop kicking him the ball.

“I had that problem at Carlton where ‘Yaz’ (Chris Yarran) would always hit me up and he got in trouble for it,” Betts said with a laugh.

“I actually told Charlie, ‘if you’re running in towards goal, don’t pass it to me. Just kick it over my head through the big sticks’. Hopefully, he takes that onboard.”

Team work in the forward line extends to more than looking for a short pass inside 50m.

Betts used an example from Adelaide’s 77-point win over the Kangaroos to highlight the point.

“At this point in my career, I’m starting to get taller guys (like North Melbourne defender Scott Thompson) on me. It’s good to have Taylor Walker and Josh Jenkins down there to help out when there’s a bigger guy on me,” Betts said.

“They can run past and put a block on for me, which Tex loves doing. He has a big body and likes to get stuck into everybody. I think now, as a group, we’re starting to play for each other more and are looking after each other out on the field. 

"If one goes down, we’re all in. On the weekend, Scotty Thompson was getting stuck into me and big ‘Sauce’ (Sam Jacobs) came across, Taylor came across and ‘JJ’ (Jenkins) came across and helped out. That’s how we want to be as a team.”

Betts, who only joined the Crows ahead of the 2014 season, described Walker’s game on Sunday as the best he’d seen him play in his short time at the Club.

“Tex was fantastic. He’s someone I love having around the Club,” Betts said.

“He’s a team player and likes looking after his teammates. He leads from the front as you saw on the weekend.”

Betts has become a cult hero in a short space of time at the Crows.

The ‘Eddddiiiieeee!’ chant rang out around Adelaide Oval in the fourth quarter on Sunday as the popular goalkicker lined up for his fourth.

“The boys asked me if I heard the chant on the weekend and I told them I did,” Betts said.

“The boys said, ‘Doesn’t it put pressure on you to kick the goal? The crowd should do it after you kick it instead of when you’re lining up for goal!”

With Round One now in the past, Adelaide has a number of areas to improve on ahead of Saturday’s clash with Collingwood at Etihad Stadium.

“Walshy emphasised the things we need to work on. Like the start of the third quarter. At the first three centre bounces they got the ball out and scored on us,” Betts said.

“We need to learn how to stop teams that get a quick break on us and kick four or five goals in a row. We did that halfway through the third quarter, but we’ve got to learn how to do it a bit quicker.”