ADELAIDE coach Neil Craig says his team must pay greater attention to detail if it is to progress from being a "try-hard club" to a genuine premiership contender.

Adelaide has pushed top-four sides Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs this season, having fallen short by less than a kick on both occasions, but Craig said the Crows would not be satisfied with simply being competitive.

"I thought our competitive nature, our intensity and our want to play a certain style against Hawthorn, based on the way they set up, was all very, very good last week, but in the end it [the game] came down to real attention to detail with some execution things," Craig said.

"If you were a supporter looking in, you'd say it was pretty basic stuff that we should be doing and it will be the little things that we need to tidy up on, on a consistent basis otherwise we'll continue to be known as a side that has a go, but doesn't get there.

"We're aware of that and that's why we'll continue to push hard with all our players, especially our less experienced players. There will be no backing off in that area.

"We're going to Brisbane to win and the pressure will be on to do everything correctly.

"If we don't improve those little things, we'll become a try-hard club. That's an important foundation and if you haven't got it, you're going nowhere, but we want to be better than that."

The Brisbane Lions were forced into make two late changes with Justin Sherman (back) and Travis Johnstone (hamstring) going out of the 22, but Craig was confident Adelaide would go into Saturday night's game at the Gabba unchanged.

Andrew McLeod, Nathan Bassett, Scott Thompson and Jason Porplyzia all had light weeks on the track but completed Friday's session and according to Craig are good to go.

First-round draft pick Patrick Dangerfield will fly with the team before returning to play with West Adelaide in the SANFL.

Enigmatic forward Nick Gill will play his first game of the season, narrowly edging out comeback kid Trent Hentschel at the selection table.

"We had a lot of debate about Trent this week, more so than the week before. In the end the debate was probably divided and it came down to my call," Craig said.

"I just thought Nick [was the better option], for what we want up at the Gabba and the way our side is set up.

"Barring injury, if Trent continues to perform like he has, and probably a bit more because we want to see a bit more from him in the SANFL – and I'm not talking about goals because he kicked four last week, but I'm talking about some of his movement patterns – then he'll get his chance.

"Trent is very clear about what he needs to do. Trent doesn't just want to come back and play, he wants to come back and perform. Not just run out there and say, 'How good a story is this? Pity I couldn't get the ball'.

"He's demanding, but he's very open and we've had some good discussions in the last couple of weeks about where he's going and when the right time is for him to comeback.

"I know it's a great fairy tale story or whatever, but we've got to be better than that."

Craig said it was an important game for the injury-prone Gill, who has played just seven games since being drafted at the end of 2006.

"We obviously need to assess our whole squad at the end of the year, so from now on in, it's important that Nick can hopefully stay sound and perform like he did towards the end of last year," he said.

"It's an important period for Nick, as it is for Luke Jericho and those types of players, to seize their opportunity and cement their opportunity to stay in the AFL system.

"That's not a threat of delisting, but Nick would understand that with all the ability he's got, the durability factor is very important to any AFL squad."