From 0-13 last August to 3-1 this year, Adelaide's incredible AFL resurgence is yet to cause the Crows to alter their expectations for 2021.

Labelled by some as one of the worst teams in league history during their record 16-game losing-streak across 2019 and 2020, the Crows suddenly find themselves entrenched inside the top-eight.

Adelaide were given a mighty scare by winless North Melbourne on Sunday before powering away with eight last-quarter goals to win by 41 points.

Factoring in their promising end to 2020, the Crows have won six of their last eight games, with the only defeats coming to Richmond (round 18 last year) and red-hot Sydney (in round two).

They have already matched last year's win-tally by round-four, but Crows coach Matthew Nicks is refusing to get ahead of himself.

"This is a win on the road so it's huge for our young group to win away from home," Nick said.

"A lot of players hadn't played at Marvel before so it's a great reward but the belief is the biggest part.

"We're by no means getting it perfect, that's the challenge of becoming a real contender is to get it right for four quarters.

"We want to walk off the ground and be proud of the effort we've put out there.

"We've got the results across this first month and that's the bonus, that's the reward that you get when you play a certain style.

"There's no change in expectation. We've still got so much work to do."

Making the win all the more impressive is they did it without fearless captain Rory Sloane, who will undergo eye surgery and miss up to four weeks.

"We can't put a finger on when it happened, but he just had blurry vision during the week...unfortunately it was some issues around detached retina," Nicks said.

"We'll be really conservative. We're glad he came out and talked about (having blurred vision) because it could have been quite dangerous going into the game if he didn't."