ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig is weighing up whether to take one bonafide ruckman or two when the Crows fly out for Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.

Adelaide has named Jon Griffin, Ivan Maric and Kurt Tippett in the 25-man-squad to tackle the Bulldogs on Sunday, but Craig is concerned playing all three talls could leave the Crows vulnerable to the Bulldogs’ run.

“The Bulldogs are a slightly unusual side with their size and their set-up, so we have to be, as we have in the past, mindful of that,” Craig said on Thursday.

“There’s some competition in the ruck area even though Brad Moran has injured his finger. There’s still some competition with Tippett, Maric and Griffin.”

Tippett, who booted four goals in the NAB Cup grand final loss to St Kilda, has showed promise as a key forward, but could also be used to relieve Griffin or Maric in the ruck.

Griffin played most of his junior footy as a forward before being thrown into the ruck when he shot to 202cm and Maric, while an accurate shot on goal, has not been tried as a permanent forward.

Tippett is a big chance to make his AFL debut on Sunday and if Craig opts to use the 201cm Queenslander in the ruck, either Griffin or Maric could miss out.

The Bulldogs will be without young tall defenders Tom Williams and Andrejs Everitt this week, which makes the partnership of Tippett and McGregor up forward look dangerous for Adelaide.

“Kurt could play as a permanent forward, but I also like what I see from him in the ruck and that’s where we’ve got to be mindful of what the Western Bulldogs’ line-up will be,” Craig said.

“We certainly don’t want to get too big against the Bulldogs.”

“If Tippett plays as a genuine forward then you could use your two other ruckmen [Griffin and Maric], but then you’ve also got Scott Stevens, Nathan Bock, Ben Rutten and Ken McGregor, so we’re just mindful of that.

“We may go with the three, but that will be part of the decision making process.”

No matter which inexperienced combination takes the field on Sunday, they will have their hands full against former teammate and stoppage specialist Ben Hudson.

“It’ll be tough for our guys on Sunday and it will be all year,” Craig said.

“We won’t change that with a flick of a switch. The more the young guys play, the more experience they get and hopefully in a year’s time we won’t be talking about lack of experience, but we’ll be talking about their actual performance.”