Adelaide's abundance of injured forwards has left concerned coach Neil Craig searching for alternative options to start the 2010 AFL season.

Brett Burton, Chris Knights and Jason Porplyzia are all in doubt for round one and beyond, leaving a noticeable void in the medium to small forward division.

Craig will have to cannibalise his midfield in an effort to restock his attacking options, with Scott Thompson and Patrick Dangerfield both likely to be pressed into goal-seeking service.

"We've got to make sure we use the next three (practice) games to look at some newness, particularly up forward with Knights, Burton and maybe Porplyzia, that's where we've been hit mostly," Craig said on Thursday.

"We've got some reasonable depth in defence and midfield but certainly up forward that's where it has hit us pretty heavily.

"We know Patrick Dangerfield can play up forward, he did that last year so that always remains an option.

"We know Scott Thompson can go forward, hence the reason to make sure we continue to build our midfield so we've got depth in there so those guys can go forward.

"Young Jared Petrenko showed some signs last year of being able to play up here and well have a look at him as well.

"I think Jared's ready to play AFL football, he's got some strong opposition in defence, but he's a hard little player now, he's had his best pre-season ever and he's in good form, so I'm keen to have a good look at him as well."

The Crows face Collingwood in a practice fixture at Alice Springs on Friday night, with Craig seeking signs the poor attitude demonstrated in a heavy pre-season cup loss to Port Adelaide has been eradicated.

"A really disappointing performance, irrespective of pre-season cup, irrespective of what injuries we had, that was so far away from the way we should be playing our footy it's not funny, and it wasn't funny," he said.

"The guys understand that, they're not in denial of it.

"They recognise it was a very poor performance.

"So I think for our supporter base's point of view, what I would like them to know is that we're not sitting here as a playing or coaching group saying that wasn't too bad.

"We need to get back on a level playing field in that area of the game, because unless you've got that embedded and it is reasonably ingrained week after week, everything else falls apart.

"It doesn't matter what else you want to do, you need to have that at a really high standard."

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