Adelaide coach Neil Craig admits the Nathan Bock fiasco has taken his players' eyes "off the ball" as they prepare for Sunday's AFL encounter with struggling Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

The Crows spent all of Monday dealing with the fall-out from Bock's wild weekend, locked in many a meeting to decide on the best course of action for the club.

It was only in midweek that the players were truly able to turn their attention to the Dockers, a byword for inconsistency who have nonetheless provided Adelaide with a consistently bruising series of contests in recent seasons.

"It (the Bock indiscretion) certainly took our eye off the ball early in the week because those sorts of incidents require a lot (of attention), Craig said on Thursday.

"It took probably the whole of Monday and for a lot of people Sunday, but particularly all Monday was taken up with decision-making.

"Nathan still hasn't fully recovered mentally from the whole ordeal and that's understandable because he's paid a big price.

"Being in the public area is an additional stress that people in this industry have to put up with.

"I'm not trying to say its unfair but that's what we have to deal with and it does take a bit of time for that to subside.

"I spoke to Nathan at length yesterday and he trained here yesterday afternoon. He's starting to improve each day."

Craig nominated Scott Stevens, Ben Rutten, Andy Otten and even skipper Simon Goodwin as possible match-ups for star Docker Matthew Pavlich, who would normally have been minded by Bock.

Stevens is the stand-out candidate, having done fine defensive jobs on several big names including Nick Riewoldt, in the past, but the Crows must wait on how his hamstring recovers from Thursday's main training session before giving him the outright nod.

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