Adelaide will enter Friday night's sold-out AFL elimination final against Essendon at AAMI Stadium minus midfield leader Nathan van Berlo and key defender Nathan Bock.

Nonetheless, the Crows are supremely confident of kicking off the finals series with victory against an undermanned Bombers side that has not travelled well this season.

Bock was only able to complete part of the club's final training session on Thursday before shuffling off to cool his recuperating heel fracture, while van Berlo (back) was not seen at all.

Their coach Neil Craig said that Bock had ruled himself out after still experiencing some pain.

"I thought Bocky was close, and he is close, but not worth the risk," Craig said on Thursday.

"He felt really good Tuesday night after training and still pretty good today, but he needs to predict tomorrow night, two hours, not an hour session.

"So I think he's been really responsible and trustworthy in his assessment, so we back off for another week, hopefully get the result we want tomorrow night and re-assess it.

"There's still some pain there, what he's got to make a decision on is whether the pain is, not so much bearable, but enabling him to go out and play the game without worrying about his heel."

Van Berlo will be missed for his on-field leadership and diligence, qualities that had served him well in past finals.

"At the moment all indications are that VB is only one week, but he's a big loss for us, a big loss," Craig said.

"His record in finals games is exceptional, so someone will come in and pick up the rope on that one, but he's a significant loss for us."

Injuries aside, Craig said the Crows were prepared for whatever the Bombers may hurl at his men, though the force of the blow would be adversely affected by the absence of their skipper Matthew Lloyd and athletic ruckman Paddy Ryder.

"One of the things I like about our side is we've got great flexibility to be able to cover any selection Essendon would put in," Craig said.

"Say if Lucas came in, we believe we'd have the flexibility to cover that, rather than saying `oh God if we'd known that, we'd drop this guy out'.

"We tend not to do that as a footy club very much, or at all."

Adelaide have lost each of their past two finals at home, and while he admitted the advantage of a home final was not so strong as that of a minor round game, Craig was still sure of his preference for it.

"We think it is still significant in the competition, and that was the reason we were very keen to get the result against Carlton, so we could lock that in a week ago," he said.

"There's no tomorrow in a final, whereas if you play in March, you don't want to lose but you've still got x number of weeks to go.

"Certainly the intensity and the stakes do get higher, so sometimes those little advantages you think you may have, can dissolve.

"But if we had our choice we'd play here every time, every time."

This year Adelaide have introduced orchestrated barracking among the club's fans to distract opposition players when taking a set shot at goal, something Craig said had been significant.

"We have statistics saying it has gone from 70 per cent accuracy for set shots to 35 per cent, so we'll take that," he said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP