THE CHANGE in mindset at Adelaide this pre-season can be summed up in three words that perfectly capture where the club is positioned after three years building under coach Matthew Nicks. "Time to win".

They are words that have been seen on the walls at West Lakes as the Crows' focus sharpens on getting the job done, rather than building and learning with what will again be one of the AFL's youngest lists.

It's not a mindset that suggests Adelaide should be jumping from 14th to a top-four team this year.

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What it does suggest, however, is that the club is sick of getting itself into winning positions and letting games slip, as happened far too frequently in an eight-win 2022 season.

"It does get to a point where we have sat down as a group and said it's actually time to win," Nicks told AFL.com.au.

"As a group, you want to drive that winning mentality and I think the best sides in the competition believe they are going to win and they talk in that style and language.

"They're happy to use the words let's go and win, and we're starting to find our way through that at the moment.

"There comes a frustration after a number of years where it's just time to get the job done. It's time to step up. It's quite enjoyable to go through that with the group when you know they're passionate."

Despite being a process-driven coach, winning has always formed part of the language for Nicks' Crows. It's just the emphasis has been different through different stages of the team's development.

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Having won three games in 2020 and seven and eight games respectively in the past two seasons, the team has gone through periods of 'wanting to win' and 'learning to win'. Now it is 'time to win'.

"I'd be lying if I said we didn't have a number of things up around the rooms just reminding ourselves that we can do it," Nicks said.  

"It's what we've done. We've challenged ourselves to take it up to the best.

"There's a fine line with that and a fine line where you go away from what you actually do, because ultimately the teams that win are the best teams and they play such a connected brand of footy.

"We strongly believe we can challenge the best teams in the comp, but we haven't been consistent enough in doing that over the last few years and that's our challenge this year."

The game that best captures Nicks' frustration with letting potential wins slip, and the match he has picked apart more than any other over the off-season, is the round one loss to Fremantle at Adelaide Oval.

Three goals clear halfway through the final quarter after kicking seven unanswered goals, the Crows conceded three late goals from midfield turnovers, losing by one point after Heath Chapman's brilliant late spoil on the goal line. 

"I think it has driven us to this point and [focusing on] our ability to get it done," Nicks said of that round one loss.

"There's a few key moments in that where, as a group, what we learned from that moment I believe will put us in a really good position this year if we find ourselves in the same spot.

"We know we're going to fight and take it up to the best, but we want to be able to get the job done in that moment.

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"We do a lot of different things through training scenarios (and) setting ourselves up in the same positions.

"That's one where you wake up at night thinking we're going to get this right."

Another key lesson from 2022 was found in the losing runs between rounds 7-11 and rounds 16-19, which accounted for nine of the club's 14 losses.

Following one of those losing streaks, the football department met as a whole and received feedback that the players and coaches were losing clarity on what the team was trying to do.

Instead of chasing why certain things weren't working, the Crows stripped their focus back to what they wanted to do as a team and how they wanted to play, winning three of their last four games.

There was also an understanding that with more experience, key moments in games would start to go their way.

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The Crows are also moving into a phase where Nicks and his coaches are more comfortable handing responsibility to their players for how the team play, knowing on-field direction and leadership will be crucial to eventual success.

"The first couple of years you're basically implementing a gameplan and there's a lot more coach-led instruction," Nicks said.

"Now we are working with our player group on what they feel is best in different moments and different scenarios. That's a lot more powerful as you build that connection and trust with your group.

"You see the best teams in the competition, Geelong for example, there's so much experience there. I'm not saying it's an easier team to coach, but I imagine the players have a strong input into exactly what they're doing as a group.

"We're fast-tracking that and our group are really enjoying buying into that.

"Ultimately you need a team that's going to get it done on Grand Final day. It's hard to get a message through and your players really need to lead in that instance."

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Adelaide will be the second youngest team in the AFL this season behind Hawthorn, but Nicks is not concerned about what that means for the Crows' prospects.

"Age is only a number on the Footy Record," he said.

There is a sense the players are also ready to move on from being known as a young team that is in rebuild mode, with ruckman Reilly O'Brien mirroring Nicks' sentiments.

"We've probably had a young list as an excuse the last few years, and we’ve been rebuilding, but we're a bit sick of that and we're ready to win a lot of games," O'Brien told AFL.com.au.

"It's come to the stage where we're sick of losing and we're sick of being in games and then fading out against good teams. We expect to win and we want to be a really good team."

How the Crows take it up to the best in 2023 will be intriguing. They want to remain strong at the contest, Nicks said, with "ruthless" and "entertaining" two of the traits they will again aspire to show their fans and members.

The transition element of the game, from defence to offence and vice versa, has been a heavy focus of the pre-season, while forward half polish has been enhanced with the addition of Izak Rankine and the development of Josh Rachele as a midfielder/forward.

Now, in an even 2023 competition that Nicks believes will allow any team to prevail on any given day, it's time to win.