COACH Neil Craig says the Crows will continue to showcase a hyper-attacking style of play when they tackle the Western Bulldogs in their season opener at Telstra Dome on Sunday afternoon.

Adelaide was the highest scoring team in the NAB Cup, averaging well over 100 points a game. By comparison, the Crows averaged just 86 points in 2007.

In 2006 Adelaide used its robust defence to propel a potent attack, which saw the Crows average 103 points a game and finish the regular season second on the ladder with a whopping percentage of 142.

“My first two years coaching in the AFL competition, I mean you’d have to go back to the records, but in terms of attacking and scoring, we were pretty good,” Craig said on Thursday.

“Last year was poor, but the attacking style of play is something we want to get back to rather than something we’ve never had.

“Some of the things we did last year, based on the way we drifted into a style of play, limited our scoring ability, and we had some personnel situations too - so it was a combination of things.

“But we certainly want to get back to that attacking style of play of [2005 and 2006].”

The Crows are hoping to rediscover their free-scoring style by taking greater risks, playing with more flair and also using their star midfielders as pinch-hitting forwards.

In the NAB Cup Simon Goodwin and Andrew McLeod were instrumental in attack and Craig said supporters could expect more players to be rotated through the forward line over the coming weeks.

“It will take a while to get that feeling of what the best combination is in attack and how does it work with guys going into the forward line from the midfield,” Craig said.

“But I think you’ll probably see some different positions in terms of personnel this week. Obviously we won’t have eight interchanges [like in the NAB Cup] or the luxury of changing Goodwin and McLeod one-for-one in the forward line.

“Simon and Andrew will also play in the midfield and, in Andrew’s case, in defence too, because they have to, just by the numbers.

“The NAB Cup was used to have a look at those guys and to give them some experience up there and get a real feel for it. Now with a total of 22 players those rotations change and it will be more of a ‘sharing’ of the workload, particularly in the midfield.

“Scott Thompson is going to have to play forward, Jason Porplyzia will have to spend more time in the midfield and [Nathan] van Berlo will have to go forward at some stage as well.”

Craig was also confident Adelaide’s game plan had changed enough to prevent former players Ben Hudson and Scott Welsh from giving new coach Rodney Eade any significant inside information.

“There would be some stuff [past players could give insight on], but it varies from player to player,” Craig said.

“You get some players come into your footy club who are quite studious in terms of the game and bring quite a bit of information, then other players come to your club and have only general-type information.

“Most of what the players tell you is confirmation on what you already know.

“With the amount of times other teams watch you play, and playing is where you don’t hide anything, you get that information.

“We’ve got people watching sides three or four weeks in a row, so maybe Ben and Scott could tell them [the Bulldogs] a bit, but I wouldn’t say anything significant.”