Craig said the Crows’ defence, minus centre half-back Nathan Bock, would be “tested to the max” by the best transition side in the league. But he also remains concerned about his team’s forward structure.
On paper Adelaide’s line-up inside50m is the best its looked all season and is the most talented in recent memory.
But Craig said the challenge was for Brett Burton, Jason Porplyzia, Kurt Tippett, Patrick Dangerfield and Trent Hentschel to function as a unit, having never played together in the same side.
"Those forwards have actually got to be able to work together and you can fall into a real trap. I could also throw Simon Goodwin up there and the forward line would look fantastic with Goodwin, Burton, Hentschel, Porplyzia, Tippett," Craig said on Friday.
"But it can just fall apart. There’s a responsibility from a selection point of view and from the forwards to make sure they can function as a team. I’m not interested in individuals."
The winner of Saturday’s clash will be guaranteed a home elimination final the following week. The loser faces the possibility of having to fly to Brisbane for a knockout game against the Lions.
The Crows have reached September in each of the past four years, but have not made it past the first week since 2006.
Craig described his past playing squads as having been very sound mentally, but said this year’s group possessed a scoring ability never seen at the club before.
"We actually have the belief and the ball movement to enable us to score quickly. In the past, you could’ve been critical of us that we could grind a goal out, but we couldn’t go bang, bang, bang [on the scoreboard] in a few minutes," he said.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on our ball movement and it’s still up for critique, but we believe our capacity to move the ball against a variety of defences is better now than it’s ever been. Is it going to be good enough? We’ll find out.”
The Crows recalled Burton and Dangerfield for the clash with Carlton, but resisted the temptation of bringing back ruckman Jon Griffin.
Griffin, who has missed most of the season with a hip complaint, will spend another week with SANFL club Central District while James Sellar continues as back up for lead big man Ivan Maric.
Sellar was brought in to fill the void left by injured duo Griffin and Brad Moran in round 14 and Craig said he was happy to persist with the competitive 20-year-old in finals.
"In a lot of ways James has been quite exceptional. This time last year he was playing reserves at Glenelg, so he’s had a big turnaround," Craig said.
"In a lot of ways he’s boxing outside his weight division because of his height, but I’ve been really pleased with what he’s been able to do.
"Hopefully, Jon Griffin can continue to improve his performance in the SANFL so we get some real pressure on that position but at the moment James is holding his spot."
