ADELAIDE hascontinued its dominance of Greater Western Sydney and kept up its late finalspush with a regulation 68-point victory at Spotless Stadium.
The Crows had wonall four previous games against the Giants by an average of 91 points and itwas a similar story on Saturday afternoon, as they cruised to a 20.20 (140) to9.18 (72) result against a listless home side.
The result liftsAdelaide into the top eight ahead of Gold Coast, who were hosting Collingwoodat Metricon Stadium in another pivotal contest later on Saturday.
Rory Sloane, BrodieMartin, Brad Crouch and Matthew Wright led a balanced effort from the Crows,while Eddie Betts kicked a season's best five goals in a sharp performance fromthe small forward.
The only real concernfor the visitors were injuries, with Patrick Dangerfield hurting his left kneein the third term, although he was able to return and play out the game mostly inthe forward line.
Just days afterannouncing his retirement at season's end, Ben Rutten also had a day to forget,caught high by a stray elbow and substituted out of the game midway through thefirst quarter with concussion.
It had no impact on the contest, however, with theCrows enjoying a percentage-boosting day ahead of another crunch game nextweek, when they host Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
"Seven games to go, we've just got to keepwinning," coach Brenton Sanderson said.
"The Hawks will be a great test for us, we reallyrespect the way they play and the way they go about it and they're coming off aloss last night as well.
"We'll have to be at our best next week to beatthem."
Tim Mohr was excellentfor the Giants, keeping Taylor Walker to three kicks and just one behind, withShane Mumford on his 28th birthday, Adam Treloar, Rhys Palmer and Dylan Shielcontinuing their impressive recent form.
But the Giants, whohad demonstrated enormous improvement over the past six weeks, might bebattling fatigue during the run home ahead of next week's daunting trip toPerth to meet Fremantle.
It was a third winin four games for the Crows, who host Hawthorn on Friday night in anothercritical match for their September hopes.
There were memoriesof GWS' bad old days in the first term, with the home side being second to mostcontests and appearing well off the pace set by the slick Crows.
StrangelyDangerfield, who has terrorised the Giants in the past, was left virtually onhis lonesome throughout the first term.
But it was Sloaneand Martin causing the early damage as Adelaide kicked 5.6 to just eightbehinds for a 28-point lead at the first change.
The Giants' woescontinued in the second term, stretching their run of behinds to 10 before WillHoskin-Elliott finally kicked their first goal 13 minutes into the second term.
Tomas Bugg thenkicked another from a slight angle as GWS showed some signs of life, but it wasshort-lived as the Crows ended the half with four straight goals.
When you kick eight points in the first quarter, youcould see the belief start to drop away when they weren't going through the bigsticks," GWS coach Leon Cameron said afterwards.
"That's a mental attitude and you have to be ableto keep pushing through it.
"That was disappointing.
"I know we've been up for a little while, but theenergy just to close space and put pressure on them, you could see our pressurewas 10 per cent off.
"Scoreboard pressure is a big factor and when wedon't put it on and keep the opposition from scoring, you can see theconfidence levels of some our players drop a bit.
"They have to grow up and get better at it."
Betts kicked two goalsin the final 90 seconds for a well-earned 47-point lead at the main break.
The Giants then hada crack early in the second half, kicking three of the first four goals to getthe margin back to 34 points.
The Crows weredoing it easy, however, responding with nine straight scoring shots – three ofthem goals – as they took a 60-point lead into the final change beforestrolling to an important victory.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 0.8 2.10 5.14 9.18 (72)
ADELAIDE 5.6 10.9 15.14 20.20 (140)
GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Palmer 2, Mumford, Coniglio, Hoskin-Elliott, Bugg, Williams, Patton, Cameron
Adelaide: Betts 5, Podsiadly 3, Wright 2, Jenkins 2, Sloane 2, Jacobs, Mackay, Smith, Martin, Lynch, Crouch
BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Mohr, Mumford, Palmer, Treloar, Shiel, Williams
Adelaide: Sloane, Martin, Crouch, Henderson, Wright, Betts
INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: TBC
Adelaide: Rutten (face), Dangerfield (knee), Thompson (leg)
SUBSTITUTES
Greater Western Sydney: Josh Kelly replaced Kristian Jaksch in the third quarter
Adelaide: Rory Laird replaced Ben Rutten in the first quarter
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Hay, Foot, Jeffery
Official crowd: 8,383 at Spotless Stadium
