ADELAIDE coach Brenton Sanderson is refusing to speculate about his side's prospects in 2012 despite a convincing 50-point win over Geelong at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

The coach said it was "as good as he's seen" the Crows play in this season, with the 14-goal first half their best return against the reigning premiers since 1992.

The win is the second over a highly-fancied opponent in as many weeks, after they beat the Sydney Swans at the SCG by five points last weekend.

Sanderson apologised for his "boring" stance, but insisted the Crows wouldn’t get ahead of themselves.

"I don't think we sent a message [to the competition] … when we're here during the week we certainly don't get ahead of ourselves," he said.

"We're still looking for ways to continually improve and we're getting that now as a group, we're also getting some really good form into some key players.

"I'm sorry, it's really boring but we'll just review the game and then we'll look at Carlton."

The Crows won the contested possession count by 20 and the tackle count by 10, two statistics Sanderson said were keys to the side's win.

"Contested ball and tackling, at every break that's what I just kept reinforcing to the group," he said.

"If we win contested ball and keep tackling then we'll be in the game.

"We had some great efforts, 13 individual goal kickers … so we spread the load, even contribution from the whole team. That was the most pleasing point."

Tagger-turned-defender Brent Reilly played a crucial role in the win, generating attack out of the backline with his 25 disposals.

Reilly said Adelaide's performance on Saturday set a benchmark for the rest of the season, one they would have to live up to over the coming weeks.

"Absolutely [it's a benchmark win] when you beat the reigning premiers, and they've been going well this year," he said.

"We're going to take this game and enjoy it a little bit, but we've got some big tests coming up against Carlton next week."

Sanderson was equally rapt.

"That first half was incredible really, the way they attacked the ball and tackled, their ability just to think their way through different set ups and structures was really impressive," he said.

"I'm really proud of their efforts today."

Sanderson heralded exciting small forward Jarred Petrenko's performance, especially when playing on Cat Corey Enright in the first half.

"He does a lot of thankless roles externally, but internally he gets a lot of credit," Sanderson said of Petrenko.

"I think Enright had six disposals at half-time today … we let him know how much we love that role he's playing for us."

Petrenko was ferocious at the ball on Saturday, and several Cats were hesitant to attack the ball with Petrenko sprinting in.

"A few times today I would have jumped out of the way too," Sanderson said.

"When the ball's there and he sees it, he just goes for it 100 miles an hour. You just love having those players in your team."

Harry Thring covers Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.