ADELAIDE won't pay any attention to external hype following its stunning seven-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night, as the club turns its attention to a semi-final date with Hawthorn.
Tributes directed at the club flowed into Sunday morning but the Crows will be keen to avoid the type of letdown that followed their 57-point win against West Coast in round 22.
The Crows were talked up as the competition's form side and a genuine premiership threat after the Eagles win – only to slip up poorly against Geelong the following week.
A similar flop this week would spell the end of Adelaide's 2015 season.
Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs said the best way to remain switched on against the Hawks would be to simply focus on preparation during the five days before Friday night's semi-final.
"All that stuff (hype) will take care of itself – we'll just worry about what we're doing and that's preparing for the Hawks," Jacobs said.
"We'll just go back to the system and go back to work this week at training and make sure we prepare really well.
"As a team we'll probably start thinking about [Friday night's] game later on today but for the moment it's more about recovering.
"Having six days we're probably going to have one main session so we've got to make sure it's at a really high standard."
Hawthorn was dealt a huge blow in last Friday night's loss to West Coast, with Jack Gunston suffering what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.
In a best-case scenario it remains unlikely the club's leading goalkicker in 2015 would be available to take on the Crows.
But Jacobs said Hawthorn had proved itself to be such a quality side that the absence of one player – even one of Gunston's calibre – did little to help Adelaide's cause.
"It's going to be a massive challenge, obviously Hawthorn are a great team – they didn't play the way they wanted to on Friday night," he said.
"We know they're going to come out and respond.
"They've got a really successful Box Hill team so I'm sure they've got a number of blokes who can come in and play the role if Gunston's not to get up."