Brett Burton, Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards, Nathan van Berlo, Bernie Vince, Chris Knights and Ivan Maric are among the first-choice players that have been nursed through certain sections of Neil Craig's post-Christmas preparation.
But that hefty injury toll has not dampened Adelaide's top-four ambitions according to Goodwin.
"Our challenge for this year is … to now start playing well against top-four sides," Goodwin said.
"We want to be able to put ourselves in a position to do that and really challenge those teams.
"I think it's great to have that sort of expectation. To be in an environment where you've got that sort of expectation means you're doing a lot right. We want to challenge that top four, we want to have a real crack at it and make a really good fist of this year.
Goodwin described the Crows' 2010 preparation as "ideal" and said the injury issues were not as serious as they may seem from an outside perspective.
"We feel that we've got the depth in the squad to be able to perform no matter who we play", he said.
"I think most of the guys that are on the injury list now have had solid pre-seasons, but have had some niggles late."
Despite the optimistic assessment, Goodwin admits the 22 players picked to take on Fremantle in next week's season opener will have played little football together.
"That's probably the only negative with [regard to] that cohesive style of play that you want to [be able] to play with," he said.
"Sometimes it does take a bit of time to develop, but the season is a long year - it's a bit of a marathon - so we're hoping that we'll get a lot of these players back within the first couple of weeks and we'll be gelling towards the end of the year."
Goodwin pointed to the improvement expected out of younger players like Kurt Tippett, Patrick Dangerfield, Taylor Walker, Richard Douglas and Vince to support the Crows' claims on a top-four berth.
The pre-season form of Tippett, who the skipper labeled the "future of the game", is a key factor behind the bullish attitude of last year's beaten semi-finalists.
"From what I've seen, Kurt has improved probably 25 to 30 per cent over the pre-season," he said.
"I think he's a better mark than he was, he's certainly fantastic at ground level and the pressure that he can put on the opposition with his presence is enormous."
Goodwin said Tippett, who hails from a basketball background, was developing his understanding of football more every year and believed the Crows had not had a forward of his calibre since the days of Tony Modra.
Another driving force according to Goodwin will be the memory of the heart-breaking last-gasp loss to Collingwood that ended Adelaide's 2009 campaign on a sour note.
"No doubt we used that as an influence through pre-season," Goodwin said of the five-point loss.
"We want to get back to the position where we played last year and the style of play that we played with and we want to do it better once we get there.
"There's definitely a burning desire to redeem what we did last year and certainly get better and challenge that top four."
