Tambling was traded to the Crows in October's AFL exchange period after six predominantly unfulfilling years at Richmond.
The 24-year-old made a slow start to pre-season training at his new club because of knee and groin injuries, but has been named in Adelaide's 35-man squad to take on Port Adelaide and Melbourne in the NAB Cup opener on Friday night.
Craig said it was important the skilful onballer proved himself to his new coaches and teammates.
"Richard's not [in our best 22] at the moment. He came to us injured, which we knew about, so we had to get his knee fixed and only in the last fortnight have we been able to expose him to the workloads I think he needs to be exposed to," Craig said on Wednesday.
"His performance in the internal trial last Friday was very good and he understands that he needs to force his way into our side.
"The advantage he's got is that he's a 24-year-old and has some good AFL experience. He's a very talented player, but he needs to find consistency and I think that will be his biggest challenge."
Tambling has been the subject of heavy scrutiny since being drafted by the Tigers with pick No. 4 - the pick before Hawthorn premiership star Lance Franklin - in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft.
The dashing wingman struggled to live up to expectations during his time at Punt Road but Craig said the Crows had made a point of trying to remove that expectation.
"It'll be about us not trying to do too much with Richard and just allow him to play his role," Craig said.
"He's come out of an environment where there's been huge expectation of what Richard Tambling should look like because of a number against his [selection in the] draft, versus what he's been able to do."
Tambling is one of six new faces named in the Adelaide team for the AAMI Stadium triple-header.
Ex-Carlton ruckman Sam Jacobs will play his first game for the Crows, as will draftee Brodie Smith, defender Luke Thompson and rookies Matt Wright and Ian Callinan.
Second-year defender Daniel Talia will play just his second pre-season game, while Andy Otten (ankle) and Matthew Jaensch (groin) have been included after completing training on Wednesday.
The Crows, who are scheduled to play in the first and last game, will have a 90-minute break between hit-outs and Craig said the club would carefully monitor the amount of game time given to each player.
"There are some players that have requested just to play in one game and I just had two players come into my room and ask if possible to play in both. There have also been a couple of requests to play in a certain game," Craig said.
"Now, be careful what you read into that because it's a very interesting exercise based on certain opponents they could play against.
"So as you see, there are a lot of slightly different agendas that players need to address over the next four weeks.
"A player like Myke Cook is trying to establish himself and take an opportunity, whereas Mick Doughty wants to make sure he's in good shape so he can step up for the first game [of the season proper]."
