Adelaide assistant coach Paul Hamilton says senior coach Neil Craig's people skills have contributed to the Crows' 3-1 start to the season.

"Craigy's a very good manager of people and that's been very important," Hamilton said before the Crows trained at AAMI Stadium on Monday.

"He's a good manager of the assistant coaches, he's a good manager of the players, and that means he gets the best out of them.

"He gives them some responsibilities, a lot of responsibilities, and taking some ownership of some areas, and I think they're thriving on that part of the game."

Hamilton, a former Essendon and Glenelg (SANFL) defender who was an assistant coach with the Kangaroos for the past four years, said Adelaide's 41-point win against Sydney at the SCG last Sunday was the result of a 'terrific contribution from everyone'.

"It's early still but we think we're making progress," he said. "Our aim for the year has been to keep improving the list, keep improving the players and really to make sure they're working together as one. And I think that's where the progress has been.

"The way we look at it is that, all along, this is work in progress, and we're just continuing to try to make sure we're making inroads and improvements.

"Sometimes you get wins, sometimes you get losses, but if we can see improvement in the way we're playing our football and the style of football we're playing, the pressure we're putting on the opposition, we're going to be happy.

"We think we can make the finals if we do all the things right, and we're off to a good start. But the finals are such a long, long way ahead."

Hamilton said Saturday night's clash with the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome would be 'a real hard, strong, tough game'.

"The Bulldogs are 1-3 but I think they're playing a lot better than that,"
he said. "And I think that's recognised, too, that they're a good, hard-running side.

"We get the opportunity to play at Telstra Dome, which is a terrific stadium, and we're looking forward to that. We don't go in there thinking we're favourites or underdogs, we go in there thinking, 'let's get our processes right', and then hopefully the result takes care of itself."

Hamilton agreed with suggestions there would be much emotion surrounding the Bulldogs because of Chris Grant's 300th game, and he added: "What a terrific player he's been. We all acknowledge that a player like Chris Grant has been terrific over a lot of years, so it's a terrific occasion for the Bulldogs and another reason why we know they're going to be pumped up and ready to go.

"Our training and our preparation has to be meticulous this week and we have to be zoomed in right from today. We can't spend too much time worrying about yesterday's game. We have to be looking ahead, particularly when we're playing against a side that has always played well in those big games."