Adelaide is only two wins short of equalling last year's club record of 17 in a 22-match home-and-away season but coach Neil Craig says the Crows are still in 'uncharted territory'.

"We've come a long way in a very short period of time, so we've got a lot of things to learn and the more of those types of games we can play in, the better off we will be as a football club," Craig said after the hard-earned four-point win against Collingwood at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.

"The rest of the competition is interested in what we're doing. Last year they weren't, so it is uncharted territory. Our club hasn't been able to sit on top of the premiership table so early in the season, so it's all new."

"Now, whether it stays that way I don’t know, but it's new. Now, we don't want to back away from that. We're trying to learn how to handle it and get better at the same time."

"We'll make some errors but for us to grow as a club we need to play in the type of game we saw tonight. That is a fantastic experience for us … a really poor performance last week and to come back and be able to produce that sort of result in front of 46,000 supporters, you can't buy that experience."

"Just going through a week of preparation and being able to come out and perform, not play - perform."

Craig said Adelaide had been looking for a 'mindset response' after the 82-point loss to West Coast at Subiaco Oval the previous Saturday, and he described the players' response as 'great … fantastic'.

"The bottom line is it was a game of footy with four points the difference - it's luck," he said. "I think we all understand that and this time it's fallen our way, so we take it."

"But it was bigger than that. It's the way we went about it. We were able to regroup after a really poor performance. And, of course, what's happened to Collingwood during the week just set the game up perfectly as finals-type atmosphere, and that's what it will be like."

"Every game we play now is against teams in the top eight, plus Port (Adelaide), and you know what sort of game that will be. So it will be finals-like. It will be close, it will be hard, it won't be free-flowing."

The Crows play Fremantle at AAMI Stadium next Sunday, the Western Bulldogs at the MCG the following Saturday night and then Port and Melbourne at AAMI Stadium.

Craig said he thought opposing teams had put 'a lot of thought' into how to combat the Crows' style of game, but he added: "I wouldn't be saying they're trying to copy it - I haven't seen any sides trying to copy it on a consistent basis."

When asked about Adelaide having scored only seven goals (7.16, including eight rushed behinds) from 57 forward-50 entries against Collingwood, which scored 7.12 from 45, Craig said the match had produced 'a very defensive type of footy - and that's what it'll be like in finals'.

"So when you try to get better, you won't kick 15 against that sort of play," he said. "It might be your capacity to get one extra goal. That requires a lot of work and a lot of training."

"So if people out there are expecting that you've done all this work in your training and they're going to see you just blast your way through that sort of defence, it will not happen. It's a matter of inches. It could be a matter of one goal difference that you wouldn't be able to get if you hadn't done the work."