The Crows have named three debutants, Taylor Walker, Jared Petrenko and Myke Cook, as well as two, two-gamers in Patrick Dangerfield and Andy Otten.
Carlton showed that inexperience is not always a disadvantage by dismantling Richmond by 83 points on Thursday night with four debutants in the side.
Craig conceded Adelaide was in a transitional phase in terms of introducing new personnel but was adamant the expectations of the group would remain the same.
“(If we don’t perform well) It would be great rationale for any football club to go that way (and blame inexperience), it’s a great out and I can’t stop that coming from wherever it comes from, but it won’t be coming from us. We’re about performance, so we won’t be looking for excuses in that area,” Craig said on Friday.
“Once you get selected, there will be an expectation that you perform and that (this week) just happens to be on one of the biggest stages in AFL footy against one of the great clubs, Collingwood, with a big supporter base.
“It will be a day they remember and hopefully it’s a day they remember because of the team performance and because of their individual performance rather than just running out and playing.”
Adelaide fans are also anticipating the long-awaited return of forward Trent Hentschel.
Hentschel, 26, has not played a game for premiership points since suffering a serious knee injury against Port Adelaide in round 21, 2006.
The lanky goalkicker showed solid improvement throughout the pre-season and Craig said Hentschel’s story was one of perseverance.
“The next little challenge for Trent, in talking to him, is that he doesn’t just want to roll out and play, he actually wants to stamp his authority on the game again, which he was doing before he got injured,” Craig said.
Craig has already touted Collingwood as one of the biggest improvers in 2009.
He said Saturday’s game at the MCG would serve as a good barometer for his side.
“We were poor against the Indigenous All-Stars but we got better and better each week and played really well against Sydney, who are a pretty hardened side,” Craig said.
“We step up another notch now playing for four points and therefore we get better assessments again.”
