If Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has already put the Hawks, who at least have the one victory, on notice, it would be interesting to know what he would have done this week had he been in charge of the winless Adelaide Crows.

A club touted by the likes of Melbourne great and football commentator Garry Lyon to at least reach the grand final sits hopelessly with rebuilding basketcase, Richmond - which happens to be this week's opponent - at the foot of the ladder.

Amid an anaemic forward line (the Crows average just 60 points per game - the worst in the competition) and a leaking backline (they have conceded more than 100 points in four games), not to mention an overhaul in the past week of coach Neil Craig's training program and game plan, the spotlight has centred on the Crows' over-30 brigade - forward Brett Burton, defender Michael Doughty and dual premiership heroes Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards and Simon Goodwin.

Doughty still remains in the Crows' best defensive six, skipper Goodwin has been serviceable at half-back but McLeod and Edwards can no longer kick 50m and were unable to run out last week's Showdown against Port Adelaide. Brett Burton's goal-kicking has been poor and, coming off a serious knee injury, he clearly doesn't have the zest of yesteryear and ability to handle the modern, high-intensity game.

Outspoken former Crow Andrew Jarman says the club made a mistake by not culling at least two of the over-30s last year - just as former coach Malcolm Blight did with Chris McDermott, Tony McGuinness and Jarman in late 1996 when he took over. The Crows, as we all know, went on to claim back-to-back premierships.

Craig has publicly defended his senior citizens, refusing to threaten them with demotion. In reality, he has had few options because of the Crows' lengthy injury list and a lack of talent at SANFL level.

"Do you know what our team would like at the moment without McLeod, Goodwin, Burton, Edwards?" he barked said after the 23-point defeat to the Power.

"Take those out of our team today. We have played six new players this year ... I am not sure what people want. There are plenty of opportunities in our football club for youth to come through at the moment."

While Craig naturally takes that stance, the reality is hard decisions will have to be made, sooner rather than later, when finals officially are out of calculations.

Gary Ayres, the five-time Hawthorn premiership star, brings a unique perspective to the Crows' woes. He coached the club for four and a half years before his sacking midway through 2004, while he presided over the end of the grand careers of Gary Ablett and Paul Couch, and to a lesser extent, Mark Bairstow, in an earlier role as coach of Geelong.

"When you talk about Paul Couch and Gary Ablett, they are both big names in the history of the Geelong Football Club," Ayres said.

"Adelaide is going to have to do the same thing when they consider what they want to do, or Hawthorn (in the early 1990s) when they were in that situation.

"In an ideal world, you would want a player to have a very, very clear picture in his mind where he sits because as he gets older, the bottom line is those players aren't going to improve in form because they are just not capable of that.

"They might maintain but they may even drop off too. You just can't play forever."

Ayres pointed to dual Geelong premiership skipper Tom Harley and former Hawk Shane Crawford as recent examples of men who made the right call. Both were fortunate to be able to retire having just won a premiership, but still had the wisdom to do so.

"They were smart enough to know, no, it's my time. They got out graciously and obviously as winners ultimately by playing in premierships in their last game," Ayres said.

"They (the Crows' five) have all been magnificent players. They have all made an indelible mark on the history and culture of the way the Adelaide Football Club has gone. Some are premiership players. But it all comes to an end sometime.

"What they (Crows) have got to be concerned about to handle is whether they all go at once, or they do some players this year and the rest of that particular group the following year, because you can lose a lot of experience very quickly.

"That game know-how is very hard to replace short-term. But if you are prepared to have short-term pain for long-term gain, that's obviously an option."

Andrew Jarman has never been shy of controversy or the outlandish, either during his 110-game career with the Crows or now in the media.

While Craig has coached the club into the finals in his five full years in charge - finishing fifth last year - Jarman says there is more to this slump than just ageing legs.

"They at times have had a pig-headed attitude towards trading and they didn't trade well," he told Channel Nine's Footy Classified this week.

"They haven't traded well for two or three years now. Even though they have been going ok, why would you let go of Ben Hudson who has been a fantastic ruckman?

"Why wouldn't you look at Barry Hall, when we need a key forward. You can't rely on little Kurt Tippett so, the issue I have, is there is a pig headed and arrogant attitude around the Adelaide Crows."

The revered Blight, who led the Crows to successive flags in three years at the helm when Craig was the club's fitness instructor, has largely put the blame on the second-tier players.

The Adelaide Advertiser's veteran AFL reporter Michaelangelo Rucci has, typically, got straight to the point.

"They seem over-coached, they've made it complicated and they have not adjusted to how football is being played in 2010," he recently wrote when appraising the Crows' midfield.

"And perhaps they mentally switched off - thought it was just going to happen - when they started talking about a top-four finish."

What has happened is that opponents have worked out the best way to stymie the Crows' defensive zone - once a strength - was not to coral the Crows but attack the man.

The Crows, consequently, have regularly turned the ball over under pressure to the point, Craig, after the Round 5 defeat against the Bulldogs, damningly felt that some his players didn't even want the ball.

If, as Rucci suggests, they were over-coached, that's changed this week with "player power" forcing a rethink of tactics and training.

Once accused by the likes of former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas as playing like robots, adding fuel to murmurs the Crows weren't having "fun", the players will no longer have to strictly abide by Craig's scientific structure and now have greater on-field freedom.

In another move, no longer will there be a training session on match eve, as devised by Craig in the Blight years, while heavy training will be split over two days, rather than just one as had been the case.

Whether these moves act as a metaphorical handbrake release, who really knows?

If they don't work, opinion is divided over whether Craig - under contract until the end of 2011 - would stay, fall on his sword or be moved on.

Jarman says current assistant Todd Viney would be the right man for the job, having helped the Hawks to the 2008 flag. One club insiders says dual premiership skipper Mark Bickley, also an assistant, would step up.

A change, though, seems unlikely. Crows chief executive Steven Trigg has - so far at least - categorically ruled out making a move, and says Craig hasn't even been summoned to a "please explain" in the boardroom.

That, however, would almost certainly change if the Tigers, unanimously the pre-season favourite to claim the wooden spoon, conjured victory at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.

"When you are in a two-horse race, anything is possible," Ayres said with a laugh.

Don't expect any laughs at West Lakes, though, if the outsider crosses the finish-line first.