ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig says Sunday’s sold-out clash with Port Adelaide will be a good opportunity for his team to test its high-scoring style of play against a quality opponent.

Adelaide has won six of the past seven Showdowns by shutting the Power down and, on Sunday, the Crows will be hoping for the same result despite adopting a slightly different plan of attack.

“We just want to continue to play our game this week,” Craig said on Wednesday.

“We’ve endeavoured to add a bit more offence to the way we play and that’s yet to be tested in a Showdown. So one thing we’re looking forward to is to see if it can hold up in a high pressure game against good opposition.

“If we can keep our defensive action intact, which is something we’ve always got to keen an eye on, we’d like to think that’s going to be good enough to win.

“Obviously Port Adelaide will have a different theory altogether.”

Craig said he would continue to expose his younger players to high pressure situations, which, this week includes the match-up of Jon Griffin and Kurt Tippett against Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan.

“We had Dean Cox and Mark Seaby last week and this week we’ve got Lade and Dean Brogan, who as a combination, are probably as good as you’ll get in the AFL.

“The story doesn’t change for us. It’s another good opportunity for our young ruckmen to come up against those two.

“We’ve always said we’ll put up with some pain along the way, but we certainly saw some good encouraging signs last week from those two.”

Craig was appalled at suggestions the Crows midfielders were resigned to losing the ruck contests.

“I don’t pick Jonathon Griffin or Kurt Tippett to lose,” Craig said.

“We don’t go down that path at all. We have great confidence in our young players and that’s why we pick them, so I expect Jon Griffin to get his hand on it in the centre square, I expect him to get his fair share of the ball around the ground and the same goes for Kurt Tippett. If Ken McGregor goes in there we have the same expectation.

“Do we expect to win every tap? No of course we don’t – we never do. Our structure around the ball is geared around that as well. You need to wash your mouth out talking like that.”