EVEN with two premierships in his four complete seasons at the helm of Adelaide, Matthew Clarke is always searching for ways to improve. 

Heading into round four with two wins and one loss, the Crows have faced some real challenges early in the season. Falling to Melbourne in round one by 18 points, they backed up with wins over Richmond and North Melbourne respectively, with those wins largely coming from late surges. But that hasn't fazed Clarke. 

"Sometimes you sort of get a bit nostalgic about last season. We did win a lot of games, but the reality is, nearly every game last year was pretty tight," Clarke told womens.afl. 

"Obviously (we) played Melbourne round one and got beat and then the next two, it's been the last quarter where we've been able to sort of get away. But it's not actually, to my eye anyway, it's not that dissimilar to a lot of our footy last (season)." 

While for Clarke the footy doesn't seem all that different, there have been some notable statistical shifts for the Crows across the first three rounds of season seven. They are winning less ball than they did in their premiership campaign and are instead winning a record 28 average clearances – 8.6 more than they did earlier in the year. 

"We wanted to get better, yes, but it wouldn't have mattered if we'd have been the No.1 clearance team, we still would have wanted to get better," he said.

Adelaide's statistical shift 

"Melbourne were really strong inside, but then they in particular, they got us on the outside of the contest, and they had some sort of world record of uncontested possession. But a lot of it was just handball receives on the outside of that initial contest, so we needed to get a little bit better in that. And I feel as though over the last two weeks we've started to address that," Clarke said. 

When it has clicked for the Crows, specifically in the final quarter of each of their past two matches, they have looked like the dominant premiership side of earlier in the year, but it has just been about finding that for longer periods in game. 

The Crows quarter by quarter 

What Clarke and his Crows do have at their disposal, however, is the versatility of captain Chelsea Randall. Last week it was her move onto Kangaroos star Jasmine Garner that helped turn the tide of the game back in Adelaide's favour. 

"The intent was for her to play some different spots," Clarke said of his captain. 

"Obviously we know that she can play that (defensive) role really effectively. But in terms of her growth and also the team's growth, I just think there's an opportunity there to see her keep getting better and to let some other people find their way as well. So that's been an intentional shift. I don't know if it will be permanent, but it's what we've done thus far." 

Randall's evolution isn't the only change that has opened the door for a host of other Crows to take a step up. The move of key trio Erin Phillips, Justine Mules and Angela Foley to Port Adelaide, as well as Nikki Gore's trade to Fremantle, has forced a more even spread across Adelaide's list than ever before. 

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"That's just the natural evolution of any side … it's interesting, we've had stability, but we've also had a fair bit of turnover when you look at even since I took on the job in 2019. So that's great. I mean, it's part of footy, that evolution, and we're starting to see some players that have moved through that development phase and now becoming influential." 

Now, as they face another big challenge in the undefeated Magpies on Sunday, the Crows' ability to stay in the contest even when things aren't quite going their way remains their biggest asset and is the reason they are a constant danger to the rest of the competition.