Adelaide will be trying to prevent seven successive losses to Collingwood when the teams clash at Telstra Dome on Sunday.

The Crows have a surprisingly poor 5-16 record against the Magpies and have not beaten them since round 17 of 2000 - by 37 points at AAMI Stadium.

The Pies' six wins since then have been: two points at AAMI Stadium in 2001, 22 points at AAMI Stadium and 28 points at the MCG (preliminary final) in 2002, five points at AAMI Stadium and 37 points at Telstra Dome in 2003 and three points at Telstra Dome in 2004.

Adelaide midfielder Tyson Edwards says he is 'not sure' why the Pies have such a good record against the Crows.

"They have some great forwards in (Anthony) Rocca and (Chris) Tarrant," he said. "I don't know the stats on whether they have hurt us before … I am not sure. I think we match up really well in the midfield and our forward line has probably been the best it's been for a couple of years.

"I am not sure what it is. Maybe it was their talls … I don't know. We will do our best to knock them off, that's for sure."

Edwards acknowledged Collingwood would be 'fired up' after losing to the Western Bulldogs at the MCG last Sunday.

"Any side that's lost a match perhaps they thought they shouldn't have lost will be looking to redeem themselves and come out pretty hard on their home deck, so they will be wanting to knock us off," he said.

"But we just want to improve what we are doing, and if we continue to play the style of footy that we played in the first quarter, even the first half (before losing to West Coast by 11 points at AAMI Stadium last Sunday), I think we will go pretty well.

"In the past few seasons we've got off to a slow start, which makes it harder later in the year when you are always trying to catch up, so it's a big game. We don't want to lose too many of those early on because it is a long way back from there."

Asked in what areas he thought Adelaide needed to improve, Edwards said: "The main one, when the pressure gets on, is to try to keep playing a style of game that we are trying to produce now. When it got a bit tight (against West Coast) we went back to playing a bit of safe footy … rather than try to get that quick run through the backline and midfield.

"We don't think it's a fitness thing. Neil (Craig) asked a few of the guys whether we thought it was that. We don't think so. We feel we have been running out our games like we always have. I think it's not having the courage to keep playing the style we want to."

On the likely inclusion of former Melbourne midfielder Scott Thompson this week, Edwards said: "He's really hard at it and he's got heaps of skills. Whether he gets a run-on role or a tagging role, I'm not so sure. I reckon he might come back in the middle and add a little bit of hardness for us."

Edwards, 28, will play his 198th AFL match on Sunday. He was Adelaide's best player against the Eagles, continuing the consistency that has enabled him to finish high in the Crows' club-champion count in the past five seasons - fourth in 2000, seventh in 2001, second in 2002 and 2003 and third last season.