"If you talk to a whole range of other sports (people) at international level, they very rarely talk to you about people with the ball," coach Craig said after Adelaide's 50-point win against Port Adelaide in a wet, windy Showdown 20 at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night.
"They tend to talk to you more about playing the game without the ball, and I think it's one area of our great game that will just continue to increase.
"And our players are very strong on their communication with each other and they get assessed on their ability to play the game without the ball, and our assistant coaches do that really, really well."
Praising the Crows' physical toughness in slippery conditions not conducive to skilful football, Craig said: "That will always be important - it's always important in showdown games and if we're good enough to make the finals it will be doubly important in those games.
"You can't get away from it and it's an area we spend a lot of time on, not necessarily practising because I think a lot of it is more of a mentality and an understanding of what opportunities it can create for you."
Craig said Adelaide's youngest, most inexperienced players would have benefited from being involved in Saturday night's victory.
"For (Nathan) van Berlo, (Jason) Porplyzia, (Ivan) Maric and (Bernie) Vince - for those guys who have probably totalled less than 20 games among all of them - to experience that sort of game, to experience that sort of second quarter and to experience the second half when the whole team's been able to respond again, you can't buy that experience," he said.
"And also their input at half-time - as young players - was really important."
Craig said he thought giant ruckman/forward Maric was 'good' in his AFL debut, and he added: "He didn't get a lot of ground time for a variety of reasons but I thought when he was on he looked like he really wanted to play, and Ivan Maric is going to be a very fine player for our club."
Craig said Maric had been chosen as Matthew Clarke's ruck partner, and Rhett Biglands was picked as a tall forward.
"Probably at the end it got a bit big (in the wet conditions) but that was okay - it was a decision we had to make," he said.
And Craig said it was his decision to leave out Mark Ricciuto for another week, although the captain had been very keen to play.
Craig described Trent Hentschel's three-goal effort as 'fantastic', and he added: "His ball-handling in those conditions was a delight to watch, and it's just amazing how much more time it creates for players around him."
On Michael Doughty's dashing display, Craig said: "He's been good the last few weeks. He would say because he's had a bit more opportunity, which is fair comment.
"But his attitude in the last two years has been a real role model for our club. He's had to play a variety of positions, he's had to play a lot on the interchange, he gets thrown around a lot - he goes back, he's got a wing, he's a tagger, he goes forward. When other guys in our club get in that position, the first player we point them to is Michael Doughty."
Craig also praised Ken McGregor's game as 'good, very good', adding: "Two or three weeks ago, he played on (Matthew) Pavlich and did a fantastic job there for us. Now he's gone forward with Ian Perrie going down (with a knee injury), and he just keeps doing the job for us in that system. We don't ask Ken to kick five or six goals but his ability to know the system, to work in there to help others, is very, very good."
Craig said the players had done most of the talking in the rooms at half-time, trying to analyse the second quarter, in which the Crows were outscored 5.2 to 1.3, as well as some good things they did in the first term.
Showdown medallist Tyson Edwards said the players had talked about needing to improve their work at the stoppages.
"The Power really picked up their game there and they got inside us a bit more and got some ball going forward," he said. "I think that was the main area we had to work on."
Of the difficult conditions, Edwards said: "It was just a matter of getting the ball forward. It's a very simple game really when it's like that - it's just getting some yardage and we probably did it better on the night."
Edwards said Hentschel had played as if it were a 'dry-weather day'.
"His skills were magnificent," he said. "It's hard to do. It's not easy to step around guys and stay composed. It's a pressure game, a really big game for us, and it was obviously really slippery."
