Adelaide's three-year rebuild is over with finals now firmly on the agenda, stalwart Brodie Smith says.
Smith says confidence is building at Adelaide after a pre-season campaign featuring consecutive victories over Fremantle and West Coast.
"We're expecting to win games now, we're not hoping to win games," Smith told reporters on Wednesday.
"So finals is definitely something we want to achieve.
"We want to achieve that every year. But we feel like we have put enough work together now, we have had the rebuild of the last few years and it's our time to start winning games of footy now.
"We're only going into round one but we are definitely confident going into the season that we can shake it up.
"As a group we are playing to win by design and if we get the details right, getting our game plan right, then we are going into every game expecting to win - that is the shift for us this year."
The Crows haven't made the playoffs since their 2017 grand final loss and embarked on a list rebuild when Matthew Nicks took over as coach in 2020.
"There's no doubt it has been a tough few years performance-wise for the club," Smith said.
"So it nice now that we know we have been putting this game plan together and people are starting to see it now.
"It's only practice games but if we can take this form into round one and into the season then hopefully we can surprise a few and be right in it."
Adelaide's premiership season opens on March 18 with an away game against GWS.
"At the start of every pre-season you go through your trademark and what the group wants to stand for.," Smith said.
"And it's something as a leadership group we were really strong on this year ... the confidence we have built in our game plan now, why can't we play finals footy?
"It's something we're striving for. We have got focus on the process, the boring answer, of round one, round two, round three and so on, but as a group it's something we want to achieve."
