Vince cleared to play
Adelaide has finally had some good news on the injury front with Bernie Vince cleared to play against Port Adelaide
Vince failed to train with his teammates on Wednesday because of knee soreness, but Craig said he expected the Crows reigning best and fairest winner to line up against the Power.
“Bernie’s fine. He was a bit sore during the week, but he trained really well this morning… unless something comes up this afternoon we’ll go in as selected,” Craig said on Friday.
Adelaide has recalled centre half-back Nathan Bock and utility Scott Stevens for Saturday’s clash.
Rookie-listed half-forward/half-back Matthew Jaensch has also been named and will become the sixth Crow to debut this season.
The Crows have struggled to kick a winning score this season, but resisted recalling young forward Taylor Walker despite losing proven goalkickers Patrick Dangerfield (hand) and Chris Knights (foot) to injury.
Craig said the decision to give Walker another week in the SANFL was based on team balance.
“If we went with Taylor up forward it would leave us short in some areas, which we can’t afford to have,” Craig said.
“In fairness to Taylor he’s still a very young and developing player. He’s made some improvements in some areas that we spoke to him last year about, particularly in his contested ball and he’ll get his opportunity.
"He’s just not improving the way people expected him to be, but he will because he’s got a lot of talent.
“Just at the moment we can’t get him into the side based on the set up and the injuries that we have because we need to make sure we’ve got maximum flexibility.”
The Crows were condemned for their lop-sided kick-to-handball ratio (165 kicks to 227 handballs) against the Western Bulldogs last weekend and Craig said he had made some modifications to the game plan as a result.
“There are certain areas of the ground where that (kick-to-handball ratio) is way out of balance. How quickly we can make an adjustment on that remains to be seen,” he said.
“There are a lot of people around stoppages and the umpires are letting it go. If you try and use four or five handballs in those situations you’re going to run into some trouble.”
However, Craig denied having made any changes to his coaching techniques, despite media reports suggesting the club’s management had asked him to make the environment at West Lakes more ‘fun’ for his players.
“The players have a system in place where they can change any areas they might not be happy with themselves or come and talk to me about it… that certainly hasn’t happened.”