Neil Craig is rapt with Adelaide being involved in the first of the AFL's two Monday-night matches this season - against Collingwood at Telstra Dome in this opening round.

Port Adelaide and St Kilda will play the only other Monday-night match - at AAMI Stadium on April 24 (round four).

The AFL fixture list includes two day games on a Monday - the Kangaroos v Collingwood at Telstra Dome on Easter Monday, April 17 (round three) and Melbourne v Collingwood at the MCG on the Queen's Birthday holiday, June 12 (round 11).

Asked after the Crows had trained on Friday what he thought were the pros and/or cons of playing Monday-night football, coach Craig said: "We're the only two sides playing so that gives you a big stage. Indications are the viewing audience - and I'd stand corrected - will be possibly two-and-a-half to three million people watching both clubs.

"You are playing against a great traditional club, Collingwood. They've got a huge following in Melbourne. So, just from an AFL event, it's pretty special, I reckon.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for the two clubs to put themselves on show - for a whole range of reasons, which is important.

"From a playing side, it's a great opportunity for our young players - (Chris) Knights, (Nathan) van Berlo, (Bernie) Vince, if those guys play - plus our backbone group, to play in that sort of atmosphere.

"You can imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like. She's going to be on … full house … first game of the year, so it's pretty exciting for both clubs."

Asked whether he could see any disadvantage in playing on Monday night, Craig said succinctly: "No."

Adelaide and Collingwood will not play again until Sunday week - Adelaide against West Coast at AAMI Stadium and Collingwood against Hawthorn at Telstra Dome.

When asked what he had learned about the Magpies over the pre-season, Craig said: "Not a lot. What I do know is they've got a pretty healthy squad together again. The last time we played them here at AAMI Stadium, they were pretty much decimated as a playing squad.

"Our history shows we started to attack our win-loss ratio (against Collingwood) a little bit last year, but, in general terms, it's still out of balance (7-16). But the games have been normally really strong, competitive, close games - and I don't think it will be any different on Monday night."

Craig said the development of Adelaide's younger players has been the biggest progress the club had made over the pre-season.

"I think they've come on, and not by talking about it," he said. "It's not about theory now - it's been on display in the NAB Cup.

"So that's pleasing for us. We've trained really hard over the summer. Some of our conditioning is probably no better than last year, but it would be at the equivalent, and that's important for us because we do very little regimented running. So we're getting better at doing that … we're not making the same mistakes as we made last year.

"We still made some this year but different ones and not as many, and hopefully that will get better.

"We believe we're becoming better drilled in the way we play the game. That's yet to be tested, and that's why Monday night will be a good first-up test for us to see whether we can hold our nerve when the real heat comes on.

"We need to get better in that area and we think we've been doing a lot of drilling over the summer to do that. And, of course, the leadership program we've got in place continues to grow."