ADELAIDE will grit its teeth as it goes on the road for the first time in a month and tackles the visitor's graveyard that is Hawthorn in Launceston.

On paper, the Crows will start hot favourites after opening Gather Round with an outstanding first quarter against Carlton.

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They have won their last three while the rebuilding Hawks pushed Greater Western Sydney on Sunday before Harry Himmelberg's late heroics condemned them to a tight loss.

But there are plenty of traps for the over-confident, given Adelaide has won only once in six visits to Launceston and has lost two of its past three against Hawthorn.

It also heads interstate after the luxury of four straight games at Adelaide Oval.

The Crows' most recent visit to Launceston was a three-point loss to Hawthorn two seasons ago.

So while coach Matthew Nicks speaks of wanting Adelaide to ride its new-found wave and maintain its confidence, he also talked up the potential pitfalls of Sunday's clash.

"Sometimes it's nice to come in where you haven't won a game of football somewhere and we challenge the group," Nicks said on Thursday.

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"Get them to grit their teeth – that's what we'll do this week.

"Hawthorn in Tasmania, it's a tough, tough game. We've been found wanting the last few times we've come up against them.

"Be flexible – we talk about it a lot, be ready. We've played the ground, we know what to expect."

Adelaide is unlikely to make any changes with Nicks talking of possession being nine tenths of the law after what he called a "complete performance" against Carlton.

"But we're one game away from not performing," Nicks said.

Another possible issue is its unusually long 10-day break.

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Adelaide only had a five-day break heading into last week, which was made irrelevant when it steamrolled Carlton early.

The South Australians are running out games and quarters well, putting a focus on their experienced fitness boss Darren Burgess.

The Crows were given three days off after their last game and Nicks said this break had been managed carefully.

"It's actually tougher to manage the 10-day break than the five," he said.

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"Other than the soreness you probably have going into a five-day break ... the moment you run out in front of 50,000 on a Thursday night, the soreness goes to the back of the brain.

"A 10-day break is a challenge because they're so finely tuned ... the three-day break can often make you feel like you're (more sore).

"Today was a really important session for us. Hopefully you saw it, we crashed in ... today was about cracking and getting ourselves back to speed," he said.

Nicks said Hawthorn were improving and had started games well.

While it had been falling away in the third term badly, Hawthorn rectified that against GWS.

"We see some similarities to what we've been through and we know they're going to bring an amazing contest," Nicks said.

"In the end, (against the Giants) they were quite stiff."