Adelaide will make the trip west to take on ladder-leader Fremantle in a blockbuster clash at Optus Stadium on Friday night.

The Crows come into the match hoping to solidify their spot in the top six, and continue their charge towards the top four, as the home and away season enters its penultimate week. 

Adelaide Senior Coach Matthew Nicks spoke to the media on Wednesday and touched on the following topics. 

Decision yet to be made on Walker

Veteran Taylor Walker made the trip to Perth, making up an extended squad of 26, with the coaching group still “not sure” whether they will manage or play the 36-year-old against the Dockers. 

Nicks said a final decision would be made with an eye on ensuring the soon-to-be retiree was fresh for one last finals tilt. 

“Yeah, he's coming over (to Perth), so as I said, we'll take 26 over and lock away our side over the next 24 hours,” Nicks said. 

“We’re actually a pretty good side without him, we're a great side with him in and a pretty good young side without him, we knocked off Sydney in Sydney.

“It's a tough decision this one, but one that the way the draws sort of panning out, the way that if you look at the prediction of what might play out, we're mindful of having Taylor at his best in a finals series, that is something that we want to go with. 

“He’ll probably need a spell (at some point) you know, rather than playing five or six in a row. So we'll keep that in our mind.”

McAndrew one of “a number” of players to return

Nicks confirmed Lachlan McAndrew would resume his duties in the ruck after being managed last week, and would be one of a host of players to return to the side. 

He didn’t definitively say who else would be returning, but the likes of James Borlase and Luke Nankervis are in good shape after missing last week’s clash against the Tigers with injury, according to Nicks.

“We've got a number of guys that will play, so McAndrew will come back in,” Nicks said. 

“Boz (James Borlase) is in really good shape, Nankervis is feeling fantastic, so there's guys that have pushed their way back through injury and a couple that we managed (last week) that are pretty obvious ones (to return).”

How to combat Fremantle’s ‘Wharfie time’

The energy of Fremantle’s home crowd has drawn adoration from fans across the competition, with the Club’s ‘Wharfie time’ concept helping drive the Dockers’ to an undefeated record at Optus Stadium this season. 

Nicks said the group was aware of the hostile environment they would be coming into and ready to take on the challenge. 

“This is our third time to Perth this year, so you know we're well travelled, even our young guys that haven't played a lot of footy, have played a couple of games over there,” Walker said. 

“So to what you're talking about, which is the Fremantle crowd, we’ve got the same thing at home, we just haven't put a title on it yet. But when our crowd gets going, they get going, and we'll have some supporters that'll make the trip over. 

“It's a great challenge for us, they've got a finals atmosphere and a side that performs like they have, they get what they deserve in big crowds that are passionate. 

“It's hard not to have energy when you watch some of the games they've played here, you look at that Hawthorn game and how they finished. 

“It's a great experience for our guys to go through and a challenge for ourselves to be able to respond.”

Backing in Thilthorpe to respond

Nicks said he was expecting a fired up Riley Thilthorpe to take the field on Friday night, as he looked to keep building on his strong form leading up to last week’s game against Richmond. 

The Crows Coach said conditions and the way the game was played last week made it difficult for Thilthorpe, who was unable to hit the scoreboard. 

“We live in the week, don't we? How quickly we forget about the momentum he's built over the last four or six weeks,” Nicks said.

“It was tough conditions for talls last week, you know the game was a really tough and scrappy game, so I’m really backing him in to bounce back (against the Dockers).”

Taking important lessons from the Richmond game 

Nicks said the group took a lot out of last week’s gritty win against Richmond, and identified a number of key areas it did not get quite right. 

“You never throw a game out, you actually take the bonus of winning a game of football poorly,” Nicks said.

“We had a lot of attention this week in our review, a lot of interest in ‘how do we get better?’  ‘What didn't we quite get right?’

“We watched two edits on review, and our players knew straight away what we didn't get right. So hopefully that'll kick start some of our offenses as you see it, but that's not necessarily where our focus is.”

Quelling the influence of Murphy Reid

Adelaide will be tasked with stopping young Dockers maestro Murphy Reid this Friday night, with the crafty forward in the midst of a stellar second season. 

Nicks said he had the utmost respect for the 20-year-old and took note of how Melbourne was able to quell his influence last week. 

“We obviously rate him extremely highly, if he's getting too much of the football, you're in trouble because of what he does with it, and we loved what Melbourne did (last week),” Nicks said. 

“We'd like to think we have a fair bit of attention on him, it's one thing to plan and another thing to execute, but we do have a number of players that can go to that role.

“That's a huge challenge in such a strong side to actually focus on one and neglect some of the other super talented players they've got, we will put something in place.”

An update on Wayne Milera

Star defender Wayne Milera did not make the trip to Perth as he continued to recover from a hamstring injury. 

Nicks said the dashing defender was tracking strongly and was making a case to return for the Crows’ clash against GWS next Saturday night. 

“Junior’s not happy with me, he’s so hungry to play, he’s had such a good year, such a strong year, but there’s risk v reward when it comes to that,” Nicks said. 

“He moved really well (at training this week), so we'll be even more confident next week, everything going well in the next couple of sessions.”

Adelaide takes on Fremantle this Friday night, with the match to begin at 7.40pm (ACST).

Fans can watch the match live on Channel 7, Fox Footy and Kayo.