Adelaide's failure to axe some of their most revered players is a factor in the club's slide, inaugural Crows coach Graham Cornes says.

Cornes also pinpointed complacency as a reason for Adelaide featuring in a round seven match of winless clubs, against Richmond on Sunday.

Any of Tyson Edwards, Andrew McLeod and Brett Burton and Trent Hentschel should have been sacked by the club last year, he believes.

"There is no doubt, a couple of those guys should have been retired - but don't ask me which ones," Cornes said Thursday.

The Crows "didn't take the hard decision last year with a couple of the senior players, players with long term injury", he said.

"I can understand why, because they want to be perceived as doing the right thing by the players.

"I would not have wanted to make a decision on it, but they had to make a decision on at least two of those four or five players."

Responding to their crisis and at the suggestion of the players, Crows coach Neil Craig has this week radically altered the training regime, ending match eve sessions and concentrating on shorter midweek practices.

"A bit too much is being made of that," Cornes said of the training revamp.

"What happens when you are having a bad trot, you will think of ways to... shake them from their lethargy.

"I don't read too much into it other than about the leadership group, the players, had a say in it - I think that is a bit dangerous... it was probably hard for Craigy to change it."

Cornes also detects complacency "mainly in players and possibly the coaching staff".

"Probably a contributing factor is also complacency about how the squad was positioned, and they may have been a little bit seduced by their really good form last year when they hit that purple patch of form," he said.

But injuries were "definitely the main reason" for Adelaide's winless year.

"That just upset their equilibrium so badly," Cornes said.

"They can't get their best players on the field, they can't put a team together with their best players who are fit and conditioned.

"Some of the guys are there in name but they are not there in conditioning and preparation."

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