Adelaide players will wear "ice hats" to help keep them cool during intervals and on the interchange bench in the match against Melbourne at Carrara Oval on Sunday when the temperature is forecast to be a humid 28C.

The hats are hardly a fashion statement - tight-fitting with long ear flaps, much like old-style, soft-leather motor-bike helmets - and the Crows took them off quickly after trying them on at the end of Wednesday's training session.

Players from most clubs wear ice vests during breaks in hot-weather matches, but Adelaide is believed to be the first club to use ice hats, which contain a gel substance and are a modified version of the cool or cold gear some cricketers wear under helmets when batting.

Adelaide's Ben Rutten, the All-Australian full-back last season, spoke for his team-mates when he described the hats as 'flash' and added: "I don't know whether you want to be comfortable or you want to get your fashion right. It's something some of the boys are going to have to decide on.

"These new hats are just a different way of cooling the body down. It's always an issue playing in hot conditions. No, I wouldn't wear them outside the footy field."

Asked if he thought it was an advantage for the Crows to be playing at Carrara on Sunday because Melbourne would not have a home-ground advantage for a designated 'home' game, Rutten said: "I don't know if it's an advantage because we both have to travel and we both have to deal with the same conditions.

"It's not like playing Brisbane up in Queensland because they get to train in the heat. We are both coming from a similar environment, so it will be a pretty even playing field, I think."

Rutten said the Crows' defenders would have their 'work cut out' because of the Demons' 'good mix of talls and smalls', including David Neitz, Russell Robertson and Aaron Davey.

"We (the defenders) weren't completely happy with last week (against West Coast) - our aerial contests - so that's going to be a big focus for us this week and hopefully we'll improve on it against Melbourne," he said.

Asked about Neitz, his likely opponent, Rutten said: "He's always a good challenge. Generally, we've gone pretty well against Melbourne, so it's made my job a bit easier. But he's obviously the captain of the Melbourne footy club and he's got a lot of pride, and Melbourne will be keen to come out and have a good performance this week."

And when asked whether he thought other teams might try to take him away from the goal-square as the Eagles often did last Sunday, Rutten said: "I'm not sure … if that's something opposition teams want to do with me, it's not too bad for me. I don't mind getting up the ground a bit and having a bit more of a runaround."

What goals had he set for himself this year?

"Just to keep improving and being part of the leadership group, that's something I'm really looking to improve," Rutten said. "And I think it will be a bit more of a challenge for me this year to continue the good form, coming up on some of the forwards I've played on maybe two or three times. So it'll be important for me to keep raising my standards."