Coach Don Pyke says there are still a handful of spots in Adelaide’s Round One team up for grabs.

The Crows will continue auditions for their best 22 in Mount Barker, WA, on Sunday.

Experienced heads Taylor Walker, Scott Thompson, Eddie Betts, Sam Jacobs and Daniel Talia have been left out of the squad to play Fremantle, creating even more opportunities for the Club’s emerging players.

Last weekend, five Crows – Wayne Milera, Dean Gore, Paul Seedsman, Mitch McGovern and Harry Dear – made their senior debuts for the Club. Another four fresh faces, Troy Menzel, Curtly Hampton, Harrison Wigg and Luke Lowden, have been included in the squad of 29 this week.  

Pyke said there were as many as 15 players fighting for the vacant positions.

“History would say there are probably 15-16 guys, who you would ear mark to play Round One,” Pyke said.

“The rest of them are spots to be filled. It’s exciting for a lot of our players at the moment who are competing for those spots. As you saw last week, there were some guys who put their hand up and performed really well, which is positive.

“Pressure on spots is vital if you’re going to have any success. Our jobs as coaches and a selection committee should be really hard, and hopefully it is.”

Pyke admitted it was difficult to assess Adelaide’s 100-point win over an inexperienced West Coast team at Unley Oval last Sunday.

He said this week’s clash with a strong Fremantle outfit would provide a sterner test.

“I’m looking for us to play the way we want to play,” he said.

“We’re slightly younger (this week) … we’re managing a few of our senior players, but that provides some opportunities. We’re going over there with, in my view, a strong enough side to put up a very good showing.

“We expect we’re going there to win.”

Crows fans are likely to get their first look at talented trade period recruit Troy Menzel this week.

Pyke said Menzel, who was left out of the final 26 last week, would be determined to impress.

“He (Menzel) has done a mountain of work and continues to,” Pyke said.

“If he gets his opportunity this weekend, I’m sure he’ll be as keen as anyone to put that work into practice in a game. I said to Troy when he came here that his talented is undoubted, it’s really about how hard he’s prepared to work and he’s done the work.

“If he gets an opportunity on Sunday, it’ll be really exciting to see what he can bring.”

Promising midfielder Brad Crouch will train alongside Adelaide’s non-playing players on the weekend instead of making the trip to country WA.

Crouch is recovering from adductor soreness and is expected to play in the Club’s third and final pre-season hit-out against Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium on Friday, March 11.

“We thought he (Crouch) was pretty close last week, but he did some running on Saturday last week and probably pulled up a little bit sorer than we thought,” Pyke said.

“We’re taking a very conservative approach with Brad. His foot is perfectly fine, so that’s not an issue. We’ll get this little groin thing to settle down and then he’ll be ready to go.”

“I’m very confident he’ll be fine for NAB (Challenge game) 3 and Round One.”

Adelaide will kick off the 2016 Toyota AFL Premiership Season against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, March 26.

The Crows have the complication of extended breaks between their second and third pre-season matches (12 days), and their third NAB Challenge game into Round One (15 days).

Pyke said the work load of the playing squad would be carefully monitored over the next month.

“As we sit here today, we’re still just over 30 days away from Round One,” he said.

“We’ll manage the group and the volume of work both in NAB Challenge games and away from NAB games.”