Adelaide forward Eddie Betts is eager to put a racism row behind him and focus on football in Saturday night’s AFL game against Essendon.

Betts was the subject of racial taunts in last week’s game against Port Adelaide, whose ruckman Paddy Ryder was also vilified.

The racism prompted widespread outcry within the AFL but Betts now wants to move on, his coach Don Pyke says.

“We supported Eddie in a number of ways this week,” Pyke told reporters on Friday.

“Again, it’s one of those unfortunate things and incidents that happened. A lot has been said about it during the week.

“From Eddie’s viewpoint he is now looking forward to playing. He’s in a good headspace.”

Betts will form part of a revamped Crows forward line against the Bombers in the Adelaide Oval fixture.

Adelaide lost Mitch McGovern to a hamstring injury that will sideline the marking target for at least two months and fellow forward Josh Jenkins remains unavailable because of a rib injury.

Troy Menzel has been summoned as McGovern’s replacement in an unbeaten and ladder-leading Adelaide outfit ignoring hype about being the competition’s early pacesetter.

“For us, nothing has really changed,” Pyke said.

“We have won three games which is ideally what you want at the start of the season, but we have identified areas where we want to keep getting better.

“For us it’s the first step in a long season.

“We’re certainly not sitting here going ‘great start, we’re happy with ourselves and happy with our life’.

“We can’t stop people writing opinion about where they might project or where their opinion might sit as to where we may finish.

“That is the furthest thing from our mind.”

Pyke believed the seventh-placed Bombers, who last week lost for the first time this season, were now easier to read – but no less dangerous.

“People at the start of the year were saying a bit of an unknown,” he said, referring to an Essendon side bolstered by the return of a batch of players after serving a drugs-related suspension last season.

“But I think there’s a bit more known about them now.

“You look through their lines they have got a lot of quality players out there and are playing some good footy.

“We are prepared to face what we know is a good side.”