AFTER its perfect season continued last Saturday night, Adelaide is confident it can beat early premiership fancy Hawthorn on Sunday and prove to the football world it's the real deal in 2012.

The Crows will start the game at the MCG as the fresher side, after Hawthorn suffered a taxing loss to Geelong on Monday afternoon.

But veteran Crow Michael Doughty said that while his side could win, rest alone wouldn't deliver the four points.

"[The rest] always helps but that's not going to be the reason why we beat them, we have to prepare well and go over there with the right attitude to win," Doughty said.

"We haven't lost this year and we're looking to keep the role going.

"The only way to go over there is to attack them and show them what you've got and hopefully that's good enough."

Despite Hawks coach Alistair Clarkson rubbishing claims his side was the competition's benchmark, Doughty said the game would still act as a measuring stick.

"We've got blokes in the SANFL that are in good form waiting for their opportunity, so the pressure's on to keep performing each week and this week's a big challenge to see where our group's at," he said.

With a renewed enthusiasm under coach Brenton Sanderson, few deny Adelaide is a much tougher team than in 2011.

The side received its first true test of the season last Saturday night against the Western Bulldogs, when the visitors booted four unanswered third-term goals.

When they kicked their fifth in a row, early in the last and took the lead, Adelaide looked to have let it slip, but wrestled back the momentum and kicked away.

In tight games the line between ecstasy and heartbreak is thin and Doughty said that while his side's confidence was now high, it would have been a different story for the Crows of 2011.

"Last year I reckon we probably would have lost a couple of those games, or we did lose those games where we got headed and weren't able to respond," he said.

"We've got a group now that has the ability to dig in and drag a good win out."

While Adelaide's Richard Douglas' injured hamstring will sideline him for a number of weeks, Doughty said there were replacements itching to get a shot at the Hawks.

"[Matthew] Jaensch, Brodie Martin, Sam Kerridge are playing some good footy in the SANFL and Jarryd Lyons had a best-on-ground game for Glenelg," he said.

Michael Doughty is a $360,300 defender in Toyota AFL Dream Team. Register your team here