Skipper Nathan van Berlo believes his team is starting to put into practice the lessons learned in a tough 2011 season.

Despite sitting in fifth place on the AFL ladder, the Crows have been challenged in each of their three victories against bottom-eight teams of last year Gold Coast and the Western Bulldogs and most recently newcomers Greater Western Sydney.

While reaffirming Adelaide had a number of key areas to improve on, including tackling and overall defensive pressure, to compete with the best sides in the competition van Berlo said he’d been pleased with his team’s growing resolve.

“I think we’ve made big inroads on last year,” van Berlo said.

“We saw great improvement through the pre-season and in our games to-date I’ve certainly been impressed with how the boys have been able to stand up when things haven’t been going our way. I daresay last year we would’ve fallen apart a bit and not been able to stem the momentum changes that we’ve had in games this season.

“As a young list, we went through some really tough times last year and learned valuable lessons … I’ve seen that in the way guys attacked training over the pre-season and in games.

“You only have to how Rory Sloane, Paddy Dangerfield and some other guys have stood up. They don’t want to go through some of the disappointment we went through last year again.

“I think that’s been a significant improvement from our group’s point of view, but as ‘Sando’ (coach Brenton Sanderson) has pointed out there’s still a lot for us to work on.”

Adelaide will be looking to improve its record to four wins and one loss in Balfours Showdown XXXII at AAMI Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Port Adelaide has won three of the past four matches between the cross-town rivals and holds the narrow overall advantage, 17-14.

Defender Graham Johncock (corked thigh) is available to play against the Power.

Jared Petrenko (concussion) and Ian Callinan (calf) trained lightly at Max Basheer Reserve on Tuesday morning, but will need to prove their fitness at Thursday’s closed main training session.

Van Berlo said the players were looking forward to a strong contested game against Port Adelaide.

“The heat’s going to be on around the footy" he said.

"Showdown week is always a big week. As players, you only have to walk down the street to know that the footy public are right into it and it means a lot to supporters of both clubs to win.

“Sando’s looking forward to embracing it this week and really enjoying the build-up. He’s excited. It’s his first Showdown as coach and he really wants our supporters to get behind us and come to the game this weekend.”