The Crows will be shooting for their sixth straight win when they take on the lowly Tigers, but Craig said he hadn't detected any sense of complacency in his charges.
"If we – like Geelong – had won 50-odd games out of the last 56 or had won 13 games without a miss like both Geelong and St Kilda have, then you can put your hand up and say you're pretty good in today's competition," he said on Friday.
"This week is a challenge. We clearly understand that it's still a task for us to make the eight. If you look at our draw and the current form of sides, it's no guarantee that we'll make the eight.
"We've got eight wins and I think you might have to win 13 to get in the eight, so we have to win another five games at least."
Adelaide has made two changes for the game against Richmond.
Draftee Shaun McKernan will make his debut and former first-round draft pick James Sellar will make just his second AFL appearance.
The promising duo replace injured ruckman Brad Moran and the omitted Taylor Walker.
Walker, 19, earned a NAB AFL Rising Star nomination in round 10 but has experienced a lean few weeks since.
Craig said the timing was right to blood the impressive McKernan and send Walker back to the SANFL.
"We all know how talented a player Taylor is, especially offensively. He's got an exquisite kicking ability and so forth, but we just want Taylor to tidy up on some of his defensive action," he said.
"Even though he plays up forward, that [defensive action] is pretty important for us and I don't want him to have the pressure of AFL games on him to do that [improve]. I'm sure Taylor will come back fairly soon."
McKernan and Sellar will split their time between the forward line and the ruck.
Sellar, 20, spent much of last season in the Glenelg reserves, but Craig said he'd been pleased with the third-year player's development.
"In the ruck, James is not a super tall guy. He's 196cm and a lot of the guys now are over 200cm, so he'll have his work cut out there but he's addressed some areas that we've been onto James about in terms of work ethic, work rate and competitive attitude."
Two other untried Crows, Phil Davis and Tony Armstrong, will travel to the Gold Coast as emergencies.
Craig said the club was mindful of giving opportunities to its younger talent.
"We're not into giving games away. Shaun has earned the opportunity and the right to play AFL footy," Craig said.
"We've just got to make sure that we expose those guys when the timing is right and they've earned it because we found last year that, even though Andy Otten and Patrick Dangerfield only played two games, it made a huge difference when it came to the pre-season."
