CROWS coach Neil Craig has forewarned his players the club will be just as aggressive in its approach to list management this year as it was at the end of 2007 when 10 players vacated their lockers at West Lakes.

Earlier in the week, Craig’s South Australian coaching counterpart Mark Williams also conceded it would be harder than usual for his players to stay on the Port Adelaide list given the seemingly imminent introduction of the AFL’s 17th and 18th teams.

Draft concessions for the Gold Coast’s venture into the competition have not yet been finalised, but it is likely the new team will be afforded a number of first round draft picks in the coming years with the aim of building a competitive squad as quickly as possible.

Craig said each of the existing clubs was now under pressure to make the most of this year’s bumper NAB AFL Draft.

"It'll be the same for all the clubs. If the information we're getting is correct, then this will be maybe the last year, for a period of time, where you have your normal draft procedures,” Craig said.

“That places pressure on every club in the competition and we're no different to that.

“We've already spoken to our playing group about that. That's not to spook them; that's just reality. That's extra pressure we face as a club and that spills over to the playing group, so they need to know that.”

Adelaide started last season with the oldest list in the AFL, but lost more than 1000 games of experience in the off-season with the departures of Mark Ricciuto, Jason Torney, Matthew Bode, Ian Perrie, Scott Welsh, Ben Hudson, Marty Mattner, John Hinge, John Meesen and the untried Darren Pfeiffer.

The Crows used their six draft picks to help rejuvenate the list, upgraded former rookie Greg Gallman and also brought in Brad Symes and Brad Moran from rival clubs.

The Power, on the other hand, who are also in a development phase made just four changes after purging their list the year before.

Adelaide had no way of knowing the 17th AFL license would be awarded this season, but Craig said the decision to inject youth last year had since proved timely.

"The way it's fallen, if we hadn't made some of those changes, this year would be even more critical and you'd be left with a lot of young, inexperienced players in your club,” he said.

“We were always comfortable with what we did last year and we made tough decision on a lot of players.

“With the way it's fallen, it's probably helped us and we'll have to be as aggressive this year as we were last year.”