Seven months after Adam Kingsley departed Richmond to lead GWS, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has turned to his former assistant for tips.

GWS fought past Adelaide to win Kingsley's first match as coach of the Giants on Sunday and a jovial Hardwick said he'd already spoken him about how to handle the Crows on Saturday.

"Yeah, no question (I spoke to Kingsley.) We had a hard time finding him to be honest, he was still painting the town red after," Hardwick told reporters.

"He's very diligent, Adam, he gave us some good things.

"Obviously, we worked together for a long time and some of the things they're doing and we're doing are quite similar. So we'll look at that.

"Speaking to 'Kingers', he used the term 'GWS killing GWS' ... all of a sudden GWS ramped up their pressure and they got the game back on their terms."

The Tigers will again be without Robbie Tarrant (hip), likely leaving Dylan Grimes and Noah Balta to handle Darcy Fogarty and Taylor Walker, while their smaller defenders will have to deal with livewires Izak Rankine and Josh Rachele.

"We're certainly going to have our hands full with that," Hardwick said.

"Once again, if we rely on players to individually compete against those guys one-on-one, we, like most, are going to be in trouble. So it'll be a team defence philosophy."

Hardwick was happy with "80 per cent" of the Tigers' efforts in their opening-round draw with Carlton but wanted better polish and execution.

He expected his midfielders' chemistry with boom recruits Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper to grow as the season progressed.

"Those boys, we've started calling them 7-Eleven - they were open 24 hours," he quipped.

Ruckman Toby Nankervis dominated Carlton's Tom De Koning first-up but faces a sterner test against Adelaide big man Reilly O'Brien.

The Tigers opted for defender Ben Miller as a pinch-hitter but could also turn to ruck-forward Samson Ryan at the Adelaide Oval.

"It's one we're still trying to work our way through," Hardwick said.

"So it might just be horses for courses. Sometimes we might go with the ruck-back philosophy, sometimes we might go with the ruck-forward philosophy.

"We've just got to figure out what works for us, but also, what's a bit dangerous for the opposition as well. So that will change probably from week to week."

"We really like Toby in the ruck for 80 per cent of the time. So we're just trying to find that 20 to 25 per cent for that secondary ruckman."