AND YOU thought GMHBA Stadium was skinny.

Coming in at five metres more narrow than Geelong's famously lean home deck, Norwood Oval is a unique footy ground.

Measuring 164m from end to end and 109m from the widest points of the boundary, Norwood is a very different prospect for teams accustomed to playing at the MCG (160m x 141m) or Marvel Stadium (159.5m x 128.8m).

Luckily for the AFL teams playing at Norwood during Gather Round, there's an elite footy team that plays there nearly every week.

And they've got some insider tips on how to make the ground's odd proportions work to your advantage.

Adelaide's AFLW team plays roughly half of its home games at Norwood, and as the competition's most historically successful team, knows how to win there.

Teams with a strong contested game will likely fare better at Norwood, with the ground's small area liable to becoming congested easily.

"It is so narrow, it becomes more of a contested game," reigning AFLW Best and Fairest medallist Ebony Marinoff said.

"There aren't large pockets in the forward line, not a lot of room to move inside the forward 50 arc."

"I love playing at Norwood, I'm a contested sort of player so it suits me. It's always hot footy at Norwood, it's what the game will have to be on the weekend."

An inaugural Crow, Marinoff has played 24 games at Norwood. Her best piece of advice for contending with the dimensions?

"Just get it on the boot," Marinoff said. "Go direct to the forward line. If you're Oscar McInerney in the ruck, peg it 70m and get Cam Rayner to take a flying mark in front of goal out of a centre stoppage."

Marinoff's co-captain Sarah Allan also advised AFL players to take their opportunities out of the middle. 

"It can get a bit contested because of the nature of the small oval but if you have a decent leg out of the midfield, it might be pretty cool to see a goal out of the midfield for midfielders who can kick it quite long," she said.

"Try to make [the oval] bigger in stoppage as much as possible, try to draw out how contested it is as much as possible."

Allan, who has played 22 games at Norwood, had an insider tip for teams unused to playing in the elements.

"The non-stadium end can be quite windy, so make sure you do your goalkicking in the warm-up and adjust to the wind," she said.

Of course, for those players that dislike clocking up bulk kilometres, Norwood's smaller area is a godsend.

"It's quite a small oval, I like it because I don't have to do too much running!" Port Adelaide ruck Matilda Scholz admitted.

Allan agreed with her cross-town rival, adding that the small ground size had benefits in defence.

"There are some big ovals out there, it's quite refreshing to play at Norwood and you go, 'alright if we can defend this ground well we'll be playing footy more than we'll be chasing people'," Allan said.

"The less running the better."

The Western Bulldogs host Brisbane at Norwood at 3.45pm ACST on Saturday before St Kilda and Greater Western Sydney lock horns there at 2.50pm ACST Sunday