TWO. THAT'S how many top-10 draft picks the Adelaide squad contains - and one of those players, second-year tall Phil Davis, is yet to make his AFL debut.

The other, emerging teenager Patrick Dangerfield, is preparing for just his second full season after spending his first year on the Crows' list completing his Year 12 studies in Victoria.

This year's grand finalists Geelong and St Kilda boast a combined 14 top 10-draft selections. Last season's premier Hawthorn has eight.

Both the Saints' and Hawks' recent success can be traced back to the early part of the decade.

After finishing in the bottom two for three years running, St Kilda acquired some handy priority picks in captain Nick Riewoldt and midfielder Luke Ball. Hawthorn sat out five consecutive Septembers between 2002 and 2006 and in compensation received stars Luke Hodge, Lance Franklin, Jordan Lewis and Jarryd Roughead.

The Cats, who were blessed with two of the best father-son selections in history (Gary Ablett Jr and Matthew Scarlett), never had to hit rock bottom but picked up the likes of Jimmy Bartel, Joel Selwood and Andrew Mackie after missing the eight four times from 2001-06.

By contrast, the Crows have contested the finals in all but two years since the turn of the decade, including the last five years without a miss.

So how has Adelaide managed to build a list - already being touted as a genuine flag contender next season - outside of the popular and proven 'bottoming out' model?

The answer lies with coach Neil Craig and an ethos he has termed "no limitation, high expectation".

A qualified sports scientist and former SANFL player, Craig replaced Adelaide coach Gary Ayres midway through 2004, and vowed to do things differently.

He put in place the most demanding training program in the league and employed a defensive strategy that caught opposition teams off guard. With a list few people regarded as premiership material, Adelaide skyrocketed from 12th in 2004 to finish top of the ladder in Craig's first full season in charge.

The Crows reached the last four in 2005 and '06 but bombed out in preliminary finals. Critics accused Craig of working his players too hard, and with an ageing list he had some tough decisions to make.

There was public outcry when the club decided to part ways with former games record holder Ben Hart and popular veteran Matthew Clarke at the end of '06.

But the pair's departure allowed Adelaide to pounce on a little-known Queenslander by the name of Kurt Tippett and two promising teenagers in David Mackay and James Sellar.

Bucking popular expectation, Craig took the Crows to another finals series in 2007, but an elimination final failure led to deeper cuts in the playing list.

Adelaide bid farewell to Brownlow medallist Mark Ricciuto, Matthew Bode and Ian Perrie and made few friends by delisting veteran defender Jason Torney after his career-best season.

This was the year a more hard-nosed approach to club discipline also came to the fore.

Forward Scott Welsh, who had been involved in a couple of minor off-field incidents over the course of his career, was forced into the NAB AFL Pre-season Draft after the Crows refused to bend on the terms of a new one-year deal.

Ruckman Ben Hudson, who was suspended for one game after breaking a team-imposed curfew earlier in the year, also moved on.

Hudson cited a better three-year-deal from the Western Bulldogs as the reason for his departure, but at the time football operations manager John Reid admitted that both Hudson and Welsh "had a little bit of trouble coming to grips with Neil Craig's program".

The club, which had taken a punt on disgraced North Melbourne star Wayne Carey just five years earlier, was now drafting for character as much as talent and this was reflected in its approach to the 2008 off-season.

New recruiting manager Matt Rendell made waves in his first year by overlooking local lad Brad Ebert in favour of the more dynamic Dangerfield and was also responsible for getting NAB Rising Star nominee Andy Otten to West Lakes.

Former NSW Scholarship holder Taylor Walker and hard-working Port Adelaide half-back Brad Symes joined the club during the same summer and impressive trio Davis, Shaun McKernan and Rory Sloane made their way to Adelaide the following year.

The Crows, who have culled another five players including unlucky tagger Rob Shirley, are now content with their list.

They were the only team not to participate in the frenetic 2009 trade week: a fact the club views as a positive rather than a negative.

The fact that only one player, opportunity-starved ruckman Jon Griffin, wanted out of West Lakes during trade week is a reflection that the players believe in what Craig and his coaches are selling.

But will it pay off?