Adelaide's milestone player Brent Reilly says his team won't be returning to the old firm in the midfield despite the Crows' disappointing stoppage count against the Power in Round 6.

Adelaide's emerging onballers were embarrassed in Showdown XXVI as stoppages were 42 to 22 in Port's favour.

The team put in a more competitive effort during the final quarter but that was with captain Simon Goodwin and Tyson Edwards spending some time in the middle.

Goodwin and Edwards are evergreen ball magnets but Reilly, who's set to play his 100th game against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday, said the team's current midfield set can improve in the clinches.

"I reckon we can, we've got some good young midfielders coming through like Bernie (Vince), Danger (Patrick Dangerfield) and David Mackay," Reilly said.

"There is plenty of youth and enthusiasm through there and we've been working hard on it (contested ball) this week."

"We need to get Bernie and Danger to go through that themselves, through the tough patches when teams might get three or four stoppages in a row, they need to work it out and review it themselves."

"We just had one little slip up against Port which is very disappointing. But we know we can do it and we can go out there against the Bulldogs and show the AFL, and everyone else out there, how good we are."

While keen to persist with midfield youth, Reilly said there was a still a place for Goodwin and Edwards in the middle.

"I think at times you've got to put your Tyson and your Goodie in there just to maybe show the way, show the young fellas how to do it but you don't want to fall back on them all the time," he said.

"When those blokes go through there, it's not as if they are in there for the whole game, they are in there for patches."

Reilly said the midfielders could also improve their impact by changing their approach to the ruck contests.

"We can't rely on them to win every tap so we need to go out there and read the hand and fight like hell really to win the ball and win the contest."

Meanwhile, Reilly said he was still battling to cement a regular spot in the Crows line-up despite being at the club for seven seasons.

"After last year I had a lot of injuries and struggled to get back into the side after that but I've had a very, very good pre-season and I've been performing pretty good this season so far," he said.