The Crows are under pressure to make changes after their disastrous start to the season, but it seems Simon Goodwin, Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards and Brett Burton are untouchable.
Edwards and McLeod were among Adelaide’s best players on Saturday afternoon, while Goodwin and Burton have been solid contributors across the opening six rounds of the season.
All four decorated veterans are expected to be in their last season of AFL, but Craig said that was no reason to relegate the quartet to the SANFL.
“Do you know what our team would look like at the moment without McLeod, Goodwin, Burton and Tyson Edwards?" Craig asked after the game on Saturday.
"We’ve played six new players this year and at times our defence today was Phil Davis, Matthew Jaensch and Chris Schmidt. I’m not sure what people want.
“If there weren’t younger players getting games at out football club then it might be a stronger debate, but at the moment there are plenty of opportunities. I don’t think any young player is being held back at our football club."
In his six years as senior coach Craig has always opposed the notion of ‘tanking’ or ‘bottoming out’ to secure early draft picks .
He said it was important his side continued to push on and tried and win as many games as possible in 2010.
“The year is really clear to me. It’s crystal clear. We want to extract the maximum performance we can out of the playing group we have on a weekly basis.," he said.
"We owe that to our supporters, members and nineteenth man. If we drop off on that decision what happens is that everyone drops their standards because they say, ‘2010 is gone’.
“There won’t be any of that and the standards will stay very high because irrespective of what happens if you have that mentality you’ll maximise everything you do whether it be for this year; to be the best side out of the eight, to get in the eight or to be the best-prepared side for 2011.
“If you drop off on that you’re playing with real danger.”
