ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks has pinpointed a "mental issue" behind his club's winless start to the AFL season.

Nicks believes his players have come undone by pondering the bigger picture instead of the fine details presented in each moment of a game.

"It's probably for us more about process than anything," Nicks said on Thursday before flying to Perth to play Fremantle on Friday night.

"I think we might be getting stuck in the bigger picture of looking at outcome at the moment.

"Our guys, no lack of effort - sometimes that shows you're trying too hard.

"You're thinking about how do we win this game of footy rather than just the process of each and every moment in the game.

"So we've done some work around that.

"It's more of a mindset piece. As I said, there's no lack of effort there, it's just us being able to build a game, start the game well."

Nicks, in his fifth year as Crows coach, was widely tipped to return the club to the finals for the first time since 2017.

But now some pundits are forecasting a 0-5 start with the Dockers game followed by matches against Melbourne and Carlton.

"That's the work, to not look at that outcome, the bigger season, even the game as a whole," Nicks said.

"It's breaking it down into those moments, key moments, first couple of minutes of the game, how important it is to start well, or at least winning half the contests.

"We did that on the weekend, kicked the first goal, Geelong came out and knocked the next four (goals).

"We've addressed that. It's more of a mental issue for us.

"There's no lack of effort or contest, sometimes it's maybe you're trying a little too hard in that moment."