ADELAIDE will let Sam Jacobs fly solo in the ruck for one more week, before bringing in either Josh Jenkins or promoted rookie Reilly O'Brien for support.
Jacobs was forced to ruck on his own last weekend against Gold Coast when Jenkins was ruled out of the game with a hip injury.
In individual contests the star big man was too good for Suns pair Tom Nicholls and Zac Smith but with the Crows entering the game without anything close to a second ruckman, Gold Coast was able to square any hit-out advantage.
Jacobs and Adelaide will be faced with the same issue on Saturday against St Kilda's Billy Longer and Tom Hickey.
With Jenkins' return imminent and O'Brien continually impressing in the SANFL, Crows coach Phil Walsh said a second ruckman would be inserted to take on Greater Western Sydney and Fremantle in rounds eight and nine.
"Ideally I'd like to give him a little bit more support … there's probably one more week where we'll go down this path and then next week we'll definitely give him support up against (Shane) Mumford, then we've got (Aaron) Sandilands," Walsh said.
"It'd be really difficult to just do one ruck against those two guys.
"It looks as if Jenkins will be available for us next week but I'm also not against playing Reilly when you come up against Mumford and Sandilands."
A few other Saints were on Walsh's mind too – defenders Sean Dempster and Sam Fisher.
Walsh denied his team had been too indirect in attack against the Suns but insisted long bombs into the forward line wouldn't work against St Kilda's defensive pair.
If the Crows had Geelong star Tom Hawkins on their books Walsh said long and direct attack could be an option, but without him the side would look to craft its way inside 50.
"You've got to understand our personnel at the moment…we've got (Tom) Lynch and (Taylor) Walker; so you cant just bomb the ball inside your forward line," he said.
"Both Dempster and Fisher – they're very good at rolling off and then being the third man in to mark the footy.
"You've got to be careful with that; I'd love to have a Tom Hawkins or someone who we could just kick the ball too but at the moment we haven't got that player."
Jenkins isn't the only Crow approaching a return to senior football; Walsh said big-bodied midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen (hamstring) was only a week away and after successful surgery to fix a depressed cheekbone Rory Sloane has already started training again.
He's expected to be able to run next week.
The Crows are also hopeful Brad Crouch will return to the senior line up at full fitness in the second half of the season.
He hasn't played this season after breaking his foot in the NAB Challenge, but began running again this week without the aid of an AlterG machine.
