Stevens, 27, has forged a career as Adelaide’s ‘Mr Fix-it’, playing at either end of the ground, and even in the ruck, since arriving from Sydney at the end of 2003.
He kicked six goals in last year’s elimination final loss to Collingwood and proved a focal point up forward against West Coast in Alice Springs on Friday with four goals.
Adelaide, who is currently experimenting with Taylor Walker, James Sellar and also Trent Hentschel in attack, has been crying out for scoring options in recent years.
But Stevens said he was content with playing a cameo role.
“I’ll continue to do that [play at both ends of the ground] this season,” Stevens said.
“I enjoy kicking goals, but if I can play a role down back that’s fine with me. I don’t think you can get too carried away with the pre-season games. It’s nice that I’m playing well, it’s better than not playing well, and it’s nice that I’m kicking goals.
“If I can continue to do that then I’ll be as happy as anyone.”
The Crows are 0-3 this pre-season and face the undermanned, reigning premiers, Hawthorn, in Berri on Saturday afternoon.
Stevens said his side had showed steady improvement over the past month and remained confident despite remaining winless in 2009.
“If you’re not improving and that happens over a number of weeks, then [doubts] can probably creep in, but at this stage we’re still improving,” Stevens said.
“This week [against West Coast] we were better in a lot of areas than last week and we were better against Geelong [in round one] than we were against the All-Stars.
“There has been improvement, whether it’s a young guy like Rory Sloane coming in and playing his first game, or Taylor Walker or Rowdy (Trent Hentschel). Those blokes have been getting better and I thought Jared Petrenko played very well on the weekend and improved on the week before.
“We’d definitely like to win, but the important thing at the moment is that we do the things we want to do right. If we get those in order and do them consistently for four quarters then a win is going to come.”
Adelaide looked liked blowing West Coast away on Friday night after a scintillating third quarter comeback, but imploded in the final term.
Stevens said Saturday’s NAB Challenge game in Berri would provide his team with another good opportunity to pit itself against the best.
“When you’re trying some new things and new players you’re going to get a good measure against the best team in the competition,” Stevens said.
“It’s been good because we would have played Hawthorn and Geelong, the top two sides from last year, so it’s a great test for everything we’re working on to have to do it against the highest quality of opposition.”
Dream Team watch: Scott Stevens scored 93 points against Geelong in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
