North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson isn't afraid of an AFL shootout with free-scoring Adelaide in round three.
But it isn't his preferred method for the Kangaroos to go about trying to break their Adelaide Oval duck on Sunday.
The Crows (2-0) average a league-best 148 points per game after kicking 46 goals across a pair of resounding wins in their opening two fixtures.
Darcy Fogarty, Riley Thilthorpe, Josh Rachele and Ben Keays have all booted five or more majors in a side that boasts a raft of attacking threats.
North (1-1) have been no scoring slouches either, ranked fourth with an average of 111 points per game, after putting Melbourne to the sword in round two.
"Given what we've seen over the first two weeks, a shootout is what Adelaide want," Clarkson said on Friday.
"We've been able to score pretty well ourselves, so we're not afraid of a shootout.
"But the way that I've coached all along is that if it is a shootout, then we might win some and might lose some.
"Usually if you've got greater control over the defensive side of the game you've got greater control over manipulating what the result is."
The Kangaroos' record at Adelaide Oval isn't pretty.
They are 0-11 at the venue, including eight straight losses to the Crows by an average margin of 44.5 points.
The closest they have come to beating Adelaide on their home deck was a nine-point defeat in 2018.
"It's probably because we haven't been great as a footy club, to be fair," Clarkson said.
"It's a fair bit to do with that over the journey, but it's a difficult place for any team to play.
"The dimensions of the ground are a little bit different to the Melbourne grounds and that makes it a little bit more difficult.
"The Adelaide sides play that ground particularly well - and 50,000 screaming Crows fans doesn't help too much."
Adelaide suffered a blow when Nick Murray jarred his left knee at training, likely sidelining the key defender for two or three weeks.
Murray was replaced in the side by James Borlase in the Crows' only change for Sunday's clash.
North are unchanged after a surprise 59-point thumping of the Demons last week, which was a huge boost to Clarkson's developing group.
But the 56-year-old warned it won't mean much if the Kangaroos can't back it up.
"It gave us some validation that a lot of the hard work that's gone on is starting to materialise, but it's one win," Clarkson said.
"We've still got a lot of hard work to do, including this week's game against Adelaide.
"They're the form team of the competition and have been outstanding in their first two games."
Clarkson will feature in his 600th AFL/VFL match as a player or coach when he leads North against Adelaide.
The record comprises 562 premiership games, 35 pre-season games and two international games.
