ADELAIDE coach Don Pyke has scoffed at suggestions his team is not tough enough to be premiership contenders.

The second-placed Crows have lost four of their past seven games, leading some pundits to query their toughness.

"We have got plenty of competitive animals in our team, let's not kid ourselves," Pyke said.

"It's the ability to bring it on a consistent level which is what we're looking for."

Ahead of the Crows' trip to play Carlton at the MCG on Saturday, Pyke said his team needed to impose itself on opponents more frequently.

"This is a competitive game and when two opposing forces meet each other, there's a point where one wants to impose itself a bit more," he said.

"And that is a challenge for us, to be able to make sure that we're the ones to impose ourselves."

After last Thursday night's shock loss to Hawthorn, Pyke had pressed his players to show their spirit against the Blues.

"The reality is we need to respond against a Carlton side that has proven to be strong defensively and has beaten some good sides," he said.

"We have got to return to playing some of our best footy which we haven't done, to be honest, for probably six weeks - we have been up-and-down."

"It's a combination of things. It's the evenness of the comp and some things we need to continue to evolve in.

"I have always said that for us it's about executing our fundamentals and ... also about evolving our style.'