Adelaide coach Neil Craig insists his players aren't soft, saying his use of the word in after-match game notes following the loss to AFL rivals Port Adelaide was taken out of context.

Oft-considered the worst insult that can be thrown at a football side, "soft" was written among Craig's notes and was subsequently plastered across the pages of the Monday newspapers.

Taking issue with the word being "borrowed" from his notes, Craig explained that he had not intended to use the term in its most common context - to describe a team that fails to put in the required effort or physical courage to stand up in AFL circles.

"It (soft) was more about some of our attacking ball movement, which I spoke about in the press conference as being speed of movement, aerial work and our stoppages," Craig said on Thursday.

"Obviously, in footy the word soft has an immediate connotation that we all know about - weak and won't have a go.

"I haven't got a soft group of players here."

Adelaide's ruck and clearance work, so poor against the Power, was a visible focus during Thursday's main training session, though ruckman Jon Griffin was missing due to a cold.

Griffin has been dropped for Sunday's game against the Western Bulldogs, with Ivan Maric and Brad Moran both making it into the preliminary 25-man squad.

"Clearly we need to do some work on our stoppages and that will be topical until we actually start to make some progress," Craig said.

"You cannot live with 20 more stoppages against you during a game.

"The weight of numbers will get you no matter what else you're doing around the ground and how well you're doing it."

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