Neil Craig concedes Adelaide is experimenting with its squad and some game plans while also respecting the strength of the challenge Hawthorn will provide in the NAB Cup quarter-final at Launceston's Aurora Stadium on Saturday night.

"Publicly, they (the Hawks) have stated they're in it to win it, which is good, so you're playing against a side with that mentality, whereas other sides, at this stage, may not play with that mentality," Craig said after the Crows had trained at AAMI Stadium on Friday.

"The atmosphere of the game will be different than what it was last week (in Adelaide's 72-point win against Port Adelaide)."

Craig said Adelaide had not done as much homework on the Hawks as it would normally do during the premiership season.

"But we've certainly got a bit of a feel for the Hawthorn team from last week (which beat Richmond by 10 points at Telstra Dome), and there are a couple of things we want to try against them," he said. "It's very much geared to what we're doing.

"It'll be interesting to see how Hawthorn play. Certainly from their effort last week, you'd expect Hawthorn to play with a lot of enthusiasm, with their young side, which I think is great to see."

Asked whether one of the things the Crows wanted to try would be how much they could punish a team if it made mistakes, Craig said: "No, we haven't discussed that, but that's always the case, no matter who we play.

"It's more about some structural things, with the style of Hawthorn and the way some of the other sides are starting to play. And it's a good opportunity for us to play against that sort of style and see how we handle it."

Asked his attitude to the pre-season competition, Craig said: "To have a look at some of the things we've been working on over the summer break. To do that, we need to play certain players because it's no good just working on structures and suddenly you put six new people in there. You're not going to see a thing.

"Secondly, we certainly won't be taking any risks with anybody - such as (Jason) Torney this week. And we want to give some younger guys an opportunity to play.

"We're playing five first and second-year players tomorrow. It's new for our club to do that. If we're playing for four points, I guarantee you now we won't be playing five first and second-year players.

"I think we've got a bit of a mix in terms of what we're after. Clearly, whoever takes the field will play with a very fierce competitive spirit. Pre-season for our club is to get yourself ready to play and to get a good base."

Experienced Ben Hart and Torney will rest again this week, although Hart will go to Launceston as a standby player, and, from the original squad of 28, Richard Douglas and John Meesen also have been left out of the 24.

So the only change from last week's squad is the inclusion of Bernie Vince for Jason Porplyzia (quad strain).

The five first and second-year players in the 24 are Nathan van Berlo (11 games last season), Chris Knights (two) and Ivan Maric, John Hinge and Vince, who have not played an AFL match for premiership points.

Craig said the Crows 'had an obligation' to use new, young players.

"We've just got to do it," he said. "We've got no choice in terms of our long-term future and where we are going as a club. We all want to win today and it's important - that's the competition we're in and we understand that.

"But we've got to get good at the skills of performing on a week-to-week basis, but trying to get these young guys into our club and, ideally, putting them around some seniority, so we don't totally expose them, and try to get that transition coming through.

"I'm certainly not into just giving people games for the sake of youth. We won't go down that track. There needs to be a degree of performance on the training track and in the SANFL. We're just not going to hand out AFL games."

Craig said development manager Alan Stewart's work with the young players had accelerated their development - 'not only in terms of their level of training but just the way they think off the field and coming up to the standards'.

"Even in a very short period of time, I think we're starting to see the influence that Alan is having with the young group," he said.