Adelaide coach Neil Craig is adamant he will not hide behind youth in 2009.

Instead he will attack with youngsters from the very start in Saturday's AFL round one meeting with Collingwood at the MCG.

The Crows have undergone a two-year metamorphosis that means they no longer claim the unwanted tag of league's oldest list.

Performance, though, is seldom far from the forefront of Craig's mind, as befits a club that expects to make the finals every year, regardless of rebuilding, draft picks or "the premiership clock".

"(If we don't perform) it would be a great rationale for any football club to go that way, it's a great out and I can't stop that coming from wherever it comes from, but it won't be coming from us," Craig said.

"We're about performance, so we won't be looking for excuses.

"Once you get selected, there will be an expectation that you perform and that just happens to be on one of the biggest stages in AFL footy against one of the great clubs, Collingwood.

"Hopefully it's a day they remember because of the team performance and their individual performance rather than just running out and playing."

Craig's match-eve rhetoric about backing his youthful talent to fulfil a demanding, zonal game plan was supported by the team sheet, which added a significant omission to the forced withdrawals of Graham Johncock (bereavement) and Scott Thompson (hamstring).

Tagger Robert Shirley was left out in favour of younger options.

"My responsibility to Robert is to help him develop some more skills in terms of his playing flexibility," said Craig.

"There's no question he's our best tagger, but with the way we want to play the game against certain sides and with some of our structures, we need some more flexibility."

The Crows have named a 22 that features three debutants - Myke Cook, Taylor Walker and Jared Petrenko - plus two players in Andy Otten and Patrick Dangerfield with just four games between them.

Also running onto the MCG will be seasoned trio Jason Porplyzia, Ben Rutten and Nathan van Berlo, all of whom enter the match after injury-interrupted summers.

Rutten was well beaten by Magpies spearhead John Anthony in last year's elimination final at AAMI Stadium and will be keen on redemption.

Collingwood, oddly, are cast as the more senior side despite their own youthfulness, but captain Nick Maxwell indicated they were ready to stand up to that rating.

"It's been a better pre-season than we've ever had, in terms of the way players have performed individually and also as a group and everyone just can't wait to get out there," Maxwell said.

"The biggest thing is that we've had so many players available.

"Also, we've got people pushing other guys for positions so it's going to be a pretty strong team.

"There's going to be a lot of guys disappointed who missed out."

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