Adelaide coach Phil Walsh says his players were unable to react quickly enough to a GWS onslaught that faced them in the opening term of Saturday's loss in Sydney.

The Giants steamrolled the Crows from the start, recording the game's first 12 inside 50s and booting five straight goals in a blistering opening 15 minutes of the match.

While the visitors managed to reduce the margin to five points midway through the second quarter, some careless turnovers and a lack of numbers through the middle proved their undoing in the 16.12 (108) to 12.12 (84) defeat at Spotless Stadium.

"We just needed to react a little bit quicker to what we saw in front us," Walsh told reporters after the match.

"I thought it probably took us too long to do that today, particularly in that first quarter.

"We just didn't have enough guys who got the job done in the midfield."

Among the key midfield battles, Scott Thompson was well held by Stephen Coniglio throughout, while Adelaide's cause was not helped by injuries to Rory Laird (concussion), Sam Kerridge (ankle) and Luke Brown (knock). This followed the late withdrawal of Ricky Henderson with back tightness before the match.

Walsh said the club had just one interchange player in the final term.

And with Giants ruckman Shane Mumford exercising considerable influence at the stoppages and his midfield compatriots moving the footy with great speed, the Crows were unable to maintain their composure and conceded numerous goals through turnovers.

Walsh said Adelaide usually prided itself on how the club performed at stoppages and at the centre bounces.

"We are ranked really highly in that area, goals from centre bounces and all that," Walsh said.

"Today it was an area where we were shown up.

"We came with a plan today and we were unable to execute the plan. I think we were just beaten by a better team."

Trailing by 46 points at three-quarter time, the Crows booted three goals to nil in the final period to reduce the margin to 24 points by the final siren.

Walsh said that refusal to throw in the towel despite the injuries and the state of the game, was a positive.

"It shows the character of this footy club to me and what this group's done and how hard they have been prepared to work," Walsh said.

"I challenged them at three-quarter time for our fans back home to get it back to 24 points, when it looked like a 15-goal loss to me."

"I don't think we can dismiss that, and I won't use the injuries but we were down to one rotation as well."

The Crows host Fremantle next Saturday night at Adelaide Oval.