One of the most important aspects of Adelaide's hard-fought 34-point win over Collingwood at Telstra Dome on Monday night was the team's ability to rein-in the Magpies when they threatened to run away with the game in the third quarter.

The Pies kicked four goals in just over 10 minutes to turn a 19-point deficit into a five-point lead before the Crows employed a defensive, uncontested style of play that effectively stifled the opposition's run.

And while the ploy was ultimately successful, it wasn't pretty (depending on your perspective), but Neil Craig wasn't about to apologise for it after the match.

"We've certainly been guilty in the past of just trying to play speed footy. It (Collingwood's goal spree) probably went for a bit long in real terms, so we certainly haven't got it totally right, but it was important that we did it at the time because the way Collingwood was playing, the game was slipping by and it could have been a five or six goal loss," the Crows' coach said after the match.

"All credit to our players to detect that it was an appropriate time to do it and I thought we did it pretty well - I think we even scored a goal ourselves during that time."

The passage of play lasted only about five minutes and was booed roundly by Magpies supporters. Craig was asked what he thought of the tactic as a footballing spectacle.

"The spectacle of it? Well, even I heard the crowd. It's not a (good) spectacle, it's a matter of 'keepys off' isn't it, really" he replied.

"But we had no other choice. We certainly won't be playing that way all the time, but we need to have some sort of tool, if you like, available to us if we do get under siege like we were.

"We didn't do it straight away - I think we let it go for four goals in a row - but there's got to be a time where (you play that way). You don't live in denial, if we continued to go that way then the game was going to get totally out of control and get away from us.

"We'll look for other ways of doing it - I mean, ideally you don't want it to happen at all - but tonight it was reasonably effective just to put the handbrake on the game."

Craig was asked if he had given the ploy a name as he got up to leave the media conference.

"Survival," he said matter-of-factly.