ADELAIDE assistant coach Matthew Clarke is backing the club's players to retain their focus against West Coast on Saturday night after one of the most trying weeks of their careers.
The Crows flew out to Perth on Friday morning, a week after the death of coach Phil Walsh.
Jake Kelly was only omission from the team that beat the Brisbane Lions in round 13, with Rory Sloane (cheekbone) and Kyle Cheney (back) forced out through injury.
Clarke said although the emotional state of the players would remain something of a mystery until the first bounce at Domain Stadium, their focus at training during the week suggested they were ready to play.
Crows CEO sadly no stranger to leading in tragic times
"It's obviously been an enormously challenging period, but the group's been really resilient – the way they've attacked the training week has been really heartening," Clarke said.
"We're all dealing with the emotion of what's gone on but ultimately they've trained really well, they've prepared as well as they can and I think they're really keen to perform.
"We made an assessment that everyone was in a pretty good space ... ultimately you don't know until they run out but we're really confident that they're going to be in a head space to be able to compete."
Clarke hoped the simple message and plan for game day that Walsh had implemented would allow the playing group to avoid being overawed by the emotion of the occasion.
Interim coach Scott Camporeale showed the players some of Walsh's best one-liners during the week, which "broke the ice" and lightened the mood at West Lakes.
"It certainly brought a bit of humour to the situation because he had a few good one-liners and we reflected on that ... we got him at the end of his journey and so we've got the condensed version of all his greatest hits," he said.
"It perhaps broke the ice and allowed us to get back to business.
"There's still a game of footy to be won ... but one of the group's strengths this year is to have a pretty simple focus, a real clarity around how we go about it and that'll continue."
On field, Clarke said it would be imperative to stop in-form Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern from mopping up down back given his ability to take intercept marks.
Speedy midfielder Riley Knight will make his AFL debut for the Crows, after being selected last week only for the game against Geelong to be cancelled.
"He's in on form, he's in to play a role and we're really confident he'll do well," Clarke said.
