Adelaide has devoted about half of its main training session of the week to man-on-man contests as it strives to rectify the problems that plagued it in the second half of the shock three-point loss to Richmond at Telstra Dome last Saturday.

The Crows paired off for about 45 minutes in a willing session at AAMI Stadium on Wednesday.

Scott Thompson and Tyson Edwards rested because of sore feet and Mark Ricciuto and Jason Porplyzia came off early because of sore spots, but a club spokesman said later all four should train on Friday and be available to play against Carlton at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

Thompson described Richmond's defensive 'keepings-off' tactics in Adelaide's forward lines as 'something different, something we haven't experienced before'.

"But if it was to happen again, I'm sure we'd be better prepared," he said. "It was quite frustrating, but there are always challenges up there and we're more than willing to take them on board."

Asked whether there had been any on-field discussions among the players on what to do about the Tigers' tactics or whether they had waited to hear from the coaches' box, Thompson said: "As a playing group, we hold a lot of responsibility towards each other and we probably reacted a bit late ourselves and probably didn't man up early enough.

"Our contested ball was down so if you're not winning the ball and you're not sticking the tackles, you're not going to win the game. So that's something we'll have a big focus on come the weekend."

Did he expect Carlton to employ similar tactics this week?

"I'm sure Carlton have probably looked at the tapes but who knows what they'll do?" Thompson said. "Obviously Carlton are coming off a big loss so the challenge for us is to be right on our game and not slacken off."