Slow AFL starts concern Crows coach

Adelaide coach Don Pyke wants to rectify a glaring weakness in his AFL ladder leaders - sluggish starts.

The Crows have won just two of their nine opening quarters this season, a record prompting much debate within Pyke's club.

"There is clearly a trend there," Pyke said.

The Adelaide coach said the initial step to solving the problem was acknowledging it existed.

"We accept and we recognise there is a trend there in terms of what we're doing," he said.

"Forgetting the scoreboard, it's more based on some key indicators that we look at and value across the whole game that we're not bringing in the first quarter for some reason.

"So we have had a good conversation with the players."

The Crows have recovered from their slow starts - they have won all nine of their second quarters.

But Pyke said the first term woes must be fixed.

"It's a combination of mindset and making sure that when they (umpires) throw it down, we're ready to go," he said.

"We have been able to respond and get ourselves back in and win some of those games that we had poor first quarters.

"But ideally we don't want to be starting like that."