Adelaide will summon their two longest-serving current players in a bid to break a near decade-long hoodoo against Collingwood.

The ladder-leading Crows will call on Taylor Walker and Brodie Smith for their Saturday night home blockbuster against the third-placed Pies.

Crows coach Matthew Nicks says 269-gamer Smith will replace Rory Laird, who lost his challenge to a one-game ban for rough conduct at the tribunal.

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“We’re disappointed we don’t have Rory out there, but we move on,” Nicks told reporters on Wednesday.

“Brodie has put his hand up right throughout the year - he probably plays in a lot of (other) backlines across the league at the moment.

“It has been a tough year for him to sit one-back, but he deserves his opportunity again.”

The 33-year-old Smith has played seven AFL games this season, while 297-game veteran Walker, who was rested last week, will replace Chris Burgess from the team that suffered a scare from lowly West Coast.

Adelaide prevailed by just nine points after a lacklustre performance in Perth that Nicks hoped was an outlier.

“If you go back through the history of the game, there’s been teams that have had success off the back (of) a little drop away here and there,” he said.

“We hope that’s the case, that we can get straight back on the horse.”

Adelaide’s last win against Collingwood was in 2016 - they’re on a 10-game losing stretch preceded by a draw against the Magpies.

The Pies have triumphed in the past five clashes by 10 or less points.

“It’s a great lead-in (to finals),” Nicks said.

“To be able to come up against a team that has been the benchmark, on our home deck as well, it’s really an exciting one for us.

“They do have a lot of experience in amongst their group, and experience goes a long way when it comes to close games - knowing not only what to do to win, but what to do not to lose.

“They’ve had the wood on us in that area, but we’re getting better and better every time we play.

“We’ll just continue to build our confidence and know at the right time the result will go our way.”

At 35 years of age, it seems unlikely Walker will play on for another season but the veteran goalkicker is yet to confirm this.

He recently told 7NEWS he was not sure if the end would be this year or next, but just wanted to continue enjoying his footy.

“I know it’s getting to the end ... but I’ve just got to enjoy every moment that I’ve got,” Walker said.

“I don’t want to keep playing if I’m not performing ... that’ll hurt the team.”