The challenges keep coming for in-form North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri and his teammates when they play the Crows on Sunday at Adelaide Oval.
North have never won at the ground, losing 11 games there, and the Crows have started the season with emphatic wins over St Kilda and Essendon.
The Kangaroos have also lost their past six games against Adelaide, not beating them since 2020.
But North will fancy their chances after mauling Melbourne in the final quarter last Sunday for a 59-point win.
The impressive performance was highlighted by Xerri's best-afield game against Demons captain Max Gawn. In a rare bad day for Gawn, Xerri racked up 12 clearances to one.
That had unintended consequences when Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin clumsily tried to defend Gawn in his post-game media conference.
Goodwin referred to an off-field "back story", without going into specifics, and later in the week said he should have put a sock in it.
While Xerri was rapt with last Sunday's win and pleased with his own game, he knows full well that Gawn will be waiting when the two sides play again in round 18.
"Obviously Gawny has been unbelievable - probably for the last decade," Xerri told AAP.
"You love playing against the best and I thought I executed my role, which was nice and helped contribute to the win.
""It's like that between the ruckmen, most games. It's quite a unique position where the two biggest blokes on the ground go head-to-head. But he's an unbelievable talent, it's going to be physical.
"There's always next week and we have them later in the year, so that will be interesting. No doubt he will have a look at that and he'll be coming out, ready to go."
The Melbourne win was a big step forward for North, who had started the season with a tight loss to the Western Bulldogs.
"There was probably a bit of disappointment because there was definitely an opportunity to win that game," Xerri said of the Bulldogs loss.Â
"But we didn't dwell on it, we looked at the positives and what what we can work on, as had been the theme all pre-season.
"We do the same with (the Melbourne win) - look at the positives and what we need to work on and look forward to Adelaide."
While there is much to like about the Crows' start to the season, Xerri and his fellow onballers present a significant test.
Tom Powell, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Harry Sheezel made the most of Xerri's excellent ruck work against Gawn.
"They make me look good at times, they are unbelievable talents in there - some serious talent," Xerri said of the North midfielders.
"I'm very grateful to work with those boys. Whether I'm winning the hitout or not, they were really relentless in there."
North are unchanged, while Adelaide have recalled James Borlase for injured defender Nick Murray.
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