But Craig insists the Crows are playing for the Crows, not for Hart, who will become the fifth-youngest VFL/AFL player to reach the milestone, and the first solely for Adelaide.
"Ben's record speaks for itself," Craig said. "I obviously wasn't here when he started (in 1992), but he was an enormous talent when he started as a 17-year-old and to play 300 games in today's footy, with the physical demands it places on people, and the way he's grown in my time here, in terms of his leadership, he's got better and better in that area, so I think that makes him a better player again.
"And I can still see more improvement in Ben in those areas. He's absolutely a credit to himself. To have played 300 games for one club is pretty special, it really is.
"It's a really special day for Ben. (But) we won't be playing for Ben Hart. That's not what we're on about. We recognise his contribution to the club and we understand from an individual point of view how good that day will be for him, but we're certainly not playing for Ben Hart, and Ben understands that. We're playing for the Adelaide footy club.
"Malcolm Blight always used to say that when the ball was there, he wasn't necessarily thinking about that guy you're playing for. It doesn't happen that way."
Craig said Adelaide's training had been 'much lighter' this week because of last Monday night's clash with Collingwood at Telstra Dome.
"Our workload today (Thursday) was close to 50 per cent of what we would normally do, but it needed to be that way," he said. "Monday night was a new experience for us. It does throw you out a bit but certainly our workload has been probably the lightest since we started pre-season, and it will be really light on Saturday as well.
"Mark Ricciuto is pretty tired. He needs as much recovery as we can get into him, so that's a management issue. Matthew Clarke, too … with just the workload. It was a tough game of footy for both sides."
Asked whether the Crows were disadvantaged through the Eagles having had a longer break, Craig said: "You could argue that, but that's been the draw. We've known about it and we're really not interested in that. Our performance will be based on the best preparation we've got."
