Rory Laird has bounced back into defence with aplomb.

The veteran Crow spent the past four years in the midfield, but has played in his original half-back role this year as Adelaide continues to evolve its engine room, a move instigated by coach Matthew Nicks.

"I trialled it at the back end of last year, went down there and a couple of young guys went down into the midfield. It worked out really well. I'm really enjoying it, get to see Jake Soligo and Sam Berry run through the mids with Daws (Jordan Dawson) and Izak Rankine, it's worked really well," Laird said.

"I love it. Love the young fellas down there – they're not that young anymore – but working together week by week, we're understanding each other a bit more. I love it, it's a different challenge for me at this point of my career. I'm still learning too, we're all learning off each other, it's great fun.

"We stay really positive with each other; the personalities down there work really well together. It helps when Mark Keane, Mitch Hinge, Josh Worrell – they're all developing really well and playing some great footy, I just watch them go to work."

The 31-year-old Laird has effectively been the senior leader of the backline, and was impressed at how his teammates handled several spot fires against Richmond, including Tom Lynch seriously losing his cool.

"We knew with how Richmond are playing this year, it wasn't going to be easy at all. We've had some really strong games. Credit to us coming out and withstanding that as the game went on. We held it together and put together a four-quarter performance out there," Laird said.

"It's a sign of maturity, we spoke about that in (our post-match meeting), not to get sucked into a few things, keep our heads. I think you see these young guys, Jake Soligo, Josh Rachele, Riley Thilthorpe, they're all 50-60 games in, a bit more maturity to understand the games. Really polished and calm, level-headed performances."

Adelaide now sits third on the ladder and has the highest percentage in the competition. Half of its eight remaining games come against teams currently in the bottom 10 and it is a strong chance to return to finals for the first time since 2017's Grand Final loss.

"It's still early days, but there are a lot of similarities. We've got even balance across the team in terms of skill level, it's just a matter of putting it together," Laird said.

"That's the most pleasing thing, last year we had dips and flows – we'd win a really good game and then we'd lose one, and this year we're quite consistent, even though we've lost some really close ones, it's worked out really well that we've been really consistent in our performances as a team. It's super enjoyable, and it's nice to be on this side of the ledger, we haven't done it for a few years."