What do premiership favourites Collingwood and cellar-dwellars North Melbourne have in common?
Plenty, according to Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks.
The eighth-placed Crows host North, sitting 17th, on Saturday, seeking to rebound from their two-point loss to ladder-leaders Collingwood last weekend.
And despite the discrepancy between the Roos and Pies, Nicks is on high alert.
"(North) are playing a style of footy that some of the best teams in the comp are playing, very similar to Collingwood," he told reporters on Friday.
"They're taking the game on, attacking off intercept, they're scoring from stoppage."
Nicks has scrutinised the Kangaroos' last game, a 21-point loss to the Western Bulldogs before they had a bye last weekend.
"They were in the Bulldogs game, that game was tight," he said.
"And there's key moments that you're getting the third and fourth quarter where you look at what the Bulldogs are able to do ... they were able to get the job done.
"Similar to those sides sitting up the top, the competition is so even and it's small moments in games that make a difference."
Nicks was also mindful of the Crows' last encounter with the Roos, at Adelaide Oval in round 22 last year.
The scores were tied at three-quarter-time before Adelaide booted five goals to none in the last term.
North midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke was a powerful performer in that game, with his 37 disposals featuring 11 clearances, 10 inside-50s and a goal.
"There's so many talented players ... that can win the game off the road - he's one," Nicks said.
"Hard to stop ... he's got speed and power, so we'll have a look at that.
"There's a couple of different ways.
"You can try it with one v one (but) we'd like to go in moreso from a team point of view where you put a lot of work into these sort of players so your shape holds up.
"That's how we'll look at it to start with ... but like any game, if things change we've got plan B, plan C, plan D in place."
