The 32-year-old equaled his career-best effort of 41 possessions in the hard-fought win and Craig was impressed with the way he overcame an indifferent start to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
"After he'd made a pretty bad kicking error, you could see a change in his body language as if to say 'I've had enough of this – here we go'," Craig said.
"You couldn't get a better script with the way it's unfolded with Tyson playing an exceptional game in his 300th."
It wasn't all good news for Adelaide, however, with skipper Simon Goodwin unable to take any part in the second half after twisting his right knee. An initial diagnosis of a medial ligament injury was proved inaccurate with the full extent of the damage to be determined by scans on Monday.
Kurt Tippett starred up forward for Adelaide with seven goals and a contender for mark of the year while Chris Knights continued his purple patch in front of the big sticks with five.
"From a longer term perspective it's good for our footy club that we're finally starting to get a forward line that we can invest in for down the track," Craig said.
"They're still very inexperienced so to be able to play in a real high standard of footy and experience that sort of win today is very good for them.
"I think Kurt Tippett has been threatening, for a period of time, to do that. He's got a great competitive attitude so it's great reward for his persistence to keep going with that attitude [after] a couple of games where he hasn't had a lot of involvement."
The coach was also pleased with the persistence of his midfielders.
"Our biggest issue early in the game was around the stoppages," Craig said.
"At the centre bounces Essendon was fantastic, but we eventually clawed our way back into that situation and we probably got more than our share as the game went on. That certainly had a big effect on the game.
"For our group to hang in there and keep persisting and keep playing attacking footy, and not just hang in there and not let the margin blow out, I think it says a lot about the group.
"They're pretty pleased with themselves."
Craig felt the nature of the tough win on the road would be a wonderful experience for his young, developing squad and reiterated his desire to play finals while his young players mature.
"It's important that we keep that pressure on ourselves … because it makes your decision-making very clear about what you're doing as a football club," he said.
"Certainly this group of players doesn't want to hear: 'It's next year or the year [after for premiership success], we'll just let natural progression take its course'.
"That's not the quality of this group."
