MORE than half of Adelaide's first-picked players will be absent for Sunday's NAB Cup triple-header against Port Adelaide and St Kilda, despite Nick Joyce, Jared Petrenko and Sam Shaw being the only Crows listed as injured.

Coach Brenton Sanderson said he would rest his 10 best players for the shortened matches as the club prepares for a Friday night round-one clash against Essendon on March 22.

Click here to see the full teams for round one of the NAB Cup

"We’ve got four matches between now and round one … this week I guess you'd call them 10 of our better players are not going to play," Sanderson said.

"Guys [like] (Ben) Rutten, (Brent) Reilly, (Patrick) Dangerfield, (Rory) Sloane, (Sam) Jacobs, S Thompson, (Jason) Porplyzia, those sort of guys won't play any footy this weekend.

"We'll certainly manage their game time heading into round one."

Sanderson said players who were unable to cement an AFL spot last year would get ample opportunity to showcase their talent in the NAB Cup.

He singled out former Sydney Swan Lewis Johnston as one who would benefit from Adelaide's rotation policy, after he booted 57 goals in 21 games for North Adelaide in the SANFL last year but only managed one AFL game.

"We do have great depth - I mean there were some great players who were playing some great footy last season but just didn't get an opportunity," he said.

"Guys like Tom Lynch, Lewis Johnston, Aidan Riley, Jarryd Lyons; these sorts of guys played some really good, consistent footy last year but we just didn't get a chance to look at them as much as we would have liked in an AFL game.

"Now's their chance. It's very early in the season, but they certainly get an opportunity to play the Crows' way over the next two or three weeks."

However, Sanderson still expects his side to beat the Power and Saints on Sunday.

"We'll be quite young and inexperienced this first week, but we still expect to play well and to win," Sanderson said.

"I don't really care who we put on the park, I think we do have great depth and I think we'll see a Crows team this week that is still hungry to win.

"It doesn't matter who plays, if you put on the Crows jumper there's a certain expectation that you go out and play our way."

Having focused on contested ball situations through last year's NAB Cup, Sanderson said tackling and beating the tackle would be the club's emphasis this time around.

Adelaide's inability to stick tackles remained an annoyance for Sanderson throughout season 2012 and the second-year coach said he would pay close attention to it early in 2013.

"A little bit like last year, we exposed our players to a lot of contested ball drills, this year we did a lot more tackling but also, too, trying to beat the tackle," he said.

"That'll be one area that we'll be looking at the start of the season, early in the NAB Cup as a sign that we need to improve."

Lewis Johnston is a $140,100 forward in NAB AFL Fantasy. He averaged 34 points in 2012. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy Hub.

Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.