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ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke remains steadfast in his belief the Crows can challenge for the premiership – even if they have to win four sudden-death finals to do it.

The Crows could slip as low as fifth on the ladder after Friday night's 29-point loss to West Coast at Adelaide Oval.

For that to happen, Geelong, Hawthorn and Greater Western Sydney would have to win their respective games this weekend.

There could be the unique situation where the top seven teams finish with identical 16-6 win/loss records, with percentage deciding the make-up of the top eight.

WATCH: Don Pyke's full post-match media conference

"It's such an even competition, if you look at the ladder, there's one game between first and seventh," Pyke said.

"That suggests to me that all sides are very capable and we'll go into the finals with that belief and confidence we can make an impact."

The Crows will regain star midfielder Rory Sloane after serving a one-game suspension for a hit on Port Adelaide's Brad Ebert.

Rebounding defender Brodie Smith (concussion) and wingman Paul Seedsman (corked buttock) are also on track to be fit for the first week of the finals.

The Crows were well below their best against the Eagles, making countless basic errors and failing to hit targets.

Pyke defended his decision not to make mass changes on the run.

“We won’t be jumping at shadows. We've played a certain way most of the year and we felt confident backing our players in to play that way," Pyke said.

"We can throw the magnets up and completely try something different and my feeling tonight was there were some fundamentals of how we were playing we weren't executing well on.

"Rather than reach in and pull a rabbit out of the hat so to speak, it was more return to those and back our guys in.

"Unfortunately tonight we didn't get the result."

The Crows decided against applying a hard tag on Eagles midfielder Andrew Gaff, who finished with a career-high 41 possessions.

Adel v WC: Full match coverage and stats

It was also a quiet night for Adelaide's potent forward line, with Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins, Taylor Walker and Tom Lynch kicking two goals between them.

"A combination I would've thought, (of) a bit of delivery, a bit of supply," Pyke said.

"I thought in the third quarter we generated some real opportunities.

"We won our share and we started to look promising, we kicked seven points for the quarter.

"It was impossible to get any scoreboard pressure."