HE WAS one of the club's favourite sons when he was at Carlton, but Eddie Betts isn't sure how the Blues' faithful will treat him when he faces his former side on Sunday as an Adelaide player for the first time.

What's more certain is how his ex-teammates will treat him.

Betts said he fully expected plenty of "banter" during Sunday's game and revealed the trash-talking had already begun.

If the Blues did try to rough him up, he warned them he had three sizable allies by his side in Taylor Walker, Josh Jenkins and James Podsiadly.

All friendship would be put on hold come the first bounce at the MCG, but Betts said his former teammates would again be considered family at the sound of the final siren.

"Brendon Goddard said it last year, it's a unique situation where you come up and play against a team that you love, you're a life member – nine years there – love all the boys and you hate to see them lose," Betts said.

"They're all still my best mates. I had Mitch Robinson staying at home on the weekend – he's pretty gutted because he's out for two weeks on report and he wanted to play because he said he was going to bash me.

"If they target me, they target me, we've got big 'Tex' (Walker) and J-Pod (Podsiadly) and 'JJ' (Jenkins) down there that could back me up.

"There will be a lot of banter [but] it won't be fun and games out there, we'll be pretty serious. Once the game is finished, we'll be brothers again."

Betts has proved invaluable to Adelaide's developing forward line this season, not only with his on-field exploits but in his ability to pass on knowledge obtained over his 192-game career.

The 27-year-old has kicked 12 goals as a Crow and is ranked equal-10th in the League for goal assists.

But despite the impressive numbers and constant flow of praise coming from Adelaide's coaching group, Betts said he was underwhelmed with his output.

"Coming over, I expected myself to do more," he said.

"I've been averaging 40 to 50 goals [a year] and I'm only on 12 … you'd like to kick goals in games, but if you're dishing them off and laying tackles then the coaches are happy.

"I'm happy with the way I'm playing; the coaches have spoken to me (and) they're happy with the way I'm playing – as long as I'm tackling, setting up goals and holding it in our forward 50."

Betts was fairly sure he'd line up on Zach Tuohy on Sunday, having been paired with the defender during internal trials and drills in past seasons.

The matchup Betts is most looking forward to watching is between Carlton speedster Chris Yarran and Charlie Cameron, Adelaide's fleet-of-foot upgraded rookie.

Cameron lives with Betts, and shone in his AFL debut last Thursday against Collingwood with his tackling intensity, creativity and silky footwork.

Betts compared the 19-year-old to a "young Jeffery Garlett".

"He's super quick and I wouldn't mind if he lines up on 'Yaz' (Yarran) because I reckon he could be the only one who could catch 'Yaz'," Betts said.

"He had a lot of guys come up to him and say 'what a great game', and all the media too are getting a hold of him.

"He's kept his cool, and hopefully he'll play a good one this week."