The Tigers beat a finalist of last year in Adelaide. They emerged unscathed in terms of injury, and their bigger name trade-ins from other clubs and a clutch of younger types upon whom considerable hopes rest all impressed.

New midfield pair Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy both finished among the Tigers' leading ball-winners and best, with Caddy adding a goal besides. Former Sydney ruckman Toby Nankervis more than held his own against Adelaide's Sam Jacobs.

Then there were the less-seasoned likes of Daniel Rioli, Jason Castagna and Dan Butler, all of whom were able to exert considerable impact on proceedings.

"It was exciting to see our young players, Dan Butler, Castagna and Rioli were good tonight," Hardwick said.

Rioli, cousin of Hawthorn champion Cyril, played 18 games in his debut season last year, but appears to have added a bit more bulk to his frame, put to good effect in some impressive second and third efforts in the contests.

"He's started to develop a body," Hardwick said. "He's one of those players who, when you tackle, he can just seem to shrug out. He gets out of places that you're not quite sure how he gets out of, to be frank.

"He's got some improvement left in him, too, which is exciting for our fans, but when he gets the ball generally good things happen. We're starting to see something we knew [was there] when we recruited him, it's probably just taken a little bit of time with his body development."

Prestia, who will be rested for next week's second-round clash with Port Adelaide, will go into that break with plenty of confidence after an impressive first appearance in the yellow-and-black.

"He's just nice and neat," Hardwick said of the former Gold Coast midfielder. "He complements our midfield really well, and the great thing I love about his game is defensively he runs really hard as well, which is something we value highly."

Nankervis, meanwhile, already seems set to become a Hardwick favourite with his energy and competitiveness in the ruck.

"He just loves the contest. Sydney were really sorry to see him go but we were fortunate he came to us," said the Richmond coach. "He competes hard, he is a good down-the-line mark and he and Ivan Maric played well as a ruck combination, so it was a good result."

Hardwick was also pleased with the performance of his defensive unit, David Astbury performing an excellent job on the dangerous Taylor Walker without the assistance of absent All-Australian teammate Alex Rance, who the coach said would return for the Tigers' game next week.

Adelaide, meanwhile, while beaten, was hardly smarting after the loss, particularly seeing the Crows went into the game without their two best midfielders in Rory Sloane and Scott Thompson, two more in Brad Crouch and Paul Seedsman, plus highly rated defender Jake Lever.

The Crows got good service from Andy Otten, in his first appearance at senior level for more than two years, while former Giant Curtly Hampton also impressed running through midfield and up forward.

"It was a good opportunity for some of those guys," said Adelaide coach Don Pyke. "Some of them played some really good footy at SANFL level last year, and I thought there were some really positive signs.

"I wasn't expecting those guys to come in and have a breakout game ... they'll get better [next week] and beyond."

Hampton and Charlie Cameron, who also had his moments, are two players who can both add some badly needed speed to Adelaide's midfield set-ups. "We think Curtly can be that player who can play between half-back and half-forward," said Pyke. "He's got a nice blend of power and speed."

Adelaide lost several players – Sam Jacobs, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Mitch McGovern and Jonathon Beech – with minor injuries throughout the course of the game, but Pyke said he expected all of them to be fit for next Sunday's game against Geelong.

"We would've liked to have played Sam a bit longer tonight. He tweaked his back a little bit which is a bit stiff, and at this time of the year we take a no-risk policy," Pyke said. "All those boys we expect will be fine for next week but it's just a matter of tonight not being the night where you push guys on to get them through."