Adelaide coach Don Pyke says he’s not jumping at the shadows cast on his AFL side by their first loss of the season.

The ladder-leading Crows host Melbourne on Saturday night seeking to rebound from their 59-point defeat to North Melbourne.

Pyke says his coaching panel and players learnt many lessons from the loss but won’t be over-reacting.

“We are very mindful of not jumping at shadows,” Pyke told reporters on Friday.

“We understand we played some really strong powerful footy in the first six weeks, that got us to a position we’re in.

“Last week wasn’t the standard we want to play at but we get another chance tomorrow night.”

Pyke said it would be ignorant not to heed the lessons from the loss to the Kangaroos.

“We were just off in our intensity around the ball and we paid a big price for that,” he said.

“That is a good lesson to learn.

“This is a tough competition. Last week was the only time in AFL history the top five teams have been beaten. The bottom teams beat the top teams in every game.

“So the evenness, I know myself and the other coaches talk about it all the time – it’s not just a fallacy and a throwaway (line). That is reality.”

The Crows made two forced changes for the Adelaide Oval fixture against Melbourne with defender Jake Lever (hamstring) and midfielder Riley Knight (corked buttock) sidelined.

But forward Tom Lynch will play despite being concussed in last week’s match.

Adelaide recalled Wayne Milera and Troy Menzel to play the 10th-placed Demons, who dropped Jay Kennedy-Harris in favour of Dean Kent.

The fixture will mark the 200th AFL game for Demon Bernie Vince, who started his career at the Crows and has won club champion awards at both clubs.

“Obviously Bernie has had history at our footy club and is a likeable character,” Pyke said.

“… I don’t expect there would be any negative backlash towards Bernie. It’s a great achievement, 200 games of AFL footy, for anyone.”