Stars Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards will be rested, while Scott Thompson, Scott Stevens and Michael Doughty will miss with minor sore spots.
Midfielder David Mackay has been struck down by a bout of gastro and versatile big man Brad Moran has also been cut from the 23-man-team.
Patrick Dangerfield, Kurt Tippett, Richard Douglas, Chris Schmidt and Tony Armstrong have all been named to play their first games of the pre-season.
The injury-hit Hawks will field seven Box Hill players to make up the numbers on Saturday, including ex-Adelaide rookie Ed Curnow.
Only one Hawthorn premiership player, ruckman Brent Renouf, will be on show.
Crows coach Neil Craig said it would be the perfect game to get a look at some of the club’s younger players.
“The perspective has changed a little bit this week in terms of the squad that we’ll take because of the injuries that Hawthorn has got,” Craig said on Friday.
“It gives a great opportunity for a lot of those younger players and guys like Schmidt and Dangerfield think it’s a great opportunity.
“It gives them another opportunity to play a game and impress because we’re playing for four points in a week or so and there are still positions we haven’t finalised.
“It also gives them an opportunity to be able to play highly competitive football that we want them to play as young players early in their career.
“And we have great support in the Riverland so we have an obligation to treat the game in a very serious manner and we will be.
Adelaide’s big name omissions means it will go into Saturday’s game without a solitary member of the club’s leadership group.
Craig said he would meet with the senior players to decide on a match-day captain.
“From our backbone group, guys like Brent Reilly, Chris Knights, Rob Shirley and Nathan Bock are guys that are going to get a great opportunity,” he said.
Adelaide had hoped to use the last two pre-season games to settle on a side for the round one clash with Collingwood, but Craig denied the undermanned Hawthorn team had interrupted his preparations.
He also said the game would be a good test of the all-important game knowledge acquired by his younger charges over the summer.
“It was a really interesting comment from Rory Sloane earlier in the week, when he said, ‘I’m running down the wing and everything was just a blur’. He’s got the senior coach talking to him about structures and where to stand, yet just the speed of the game is making it a blur,” Craig said.
“You can understand the pressure these younger guys actually have to deal with out on the ground and that’s why it’s important we keep the pressure on them in terms of doing things as correctly as we possibly can and not just saying, ‘Go out there and have a game of football’.”
