Spots in Adelaide’s starting 22 remain up for grabs barely a month out from the Club’s opening NAB Challenge match against West Coast, according to Senior Coach Don Pyke.

Pyke’s first game in charge will be against his former team on February 21 when the Crows tackle the Eagles at Unley Oval.

Adelaide then travels to Western Australia to confront Fremantle, before closing its NAB Challenge campaign at Metricon Stadium against Gold Coast. The clash with the Suns will be Pyke’s final chance to see his players in action ahead of Adelaide’s Round One fixture on March 26 against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.

Pyke said it was still too early to predict what Adelaide’s starting lineup could look like.

“I’m looking up at the board right now and there’s 45 magnets up there, and they’re all around the place,” Pyke said on FIVEaa radio on Monday.

“We’re probably now entering a phase where we start to have some discussions with some players to let them know where they’re at in terms of the selection side of things and things they’ve got to keep working on, or things they’re training really well. That’s going to give them the best opportunity to play.

“There’s obviously a number of guys who’d be penciled in, but now we’ve got to look at what it looks like for Round One and how we manage ourselves and work ourselves through the NAB Challenge series to get ready for that first round.

“The side will sort of fall out and pick itself.”

Pyke lauded his playing group for its professionalism over the Christmas break to help the Crows kick-start their 2016.

“The players, to their credit, came back to the start of pre-season in really good shape,” he said.

“We’d only done three weeks of training as a full group and we were still sort of building, and then we hit the Christmas break, and really pleasingly the players were diligent over the Christmas period and came back in even better shape.

“It’s allowed us to hit the ground running in the early part of January and we’ve been able to ramp up training a bit quicker than we thought we could.”

Defenders Andy Otten (knee) and Ricky Henderson (back) remain on the comeback trail after both underwent surgery late last year, while midfielder Brad Crouch is progressing well in his recovery from a foot injury.

With almost a full squad at his disposal at this stage of pre-season, Pyke said he aims to reward those who have put in the work on the training track.

“Some guys have made some strides, and I’ve spoken to those guys who I’ve seen really step forward,” he said.

“I think you’ll see, when the sides are picked, you’ll see those guys come to the top. That’s what happens in elite sport. The guys that do the work and the guys who work hard, they’re the ones who’ll get the rewards.

“They’re certainly the ones we’ll be looking to reward as a match committee.”