Tenacious Crow Rory Sloane tackled his way into Saturday’s clash with Hawthorn at the MCG.

Sloane, 27, was unusually subdued for much of the contest. To three-quarter time, the Adelaide vice-captain had recorded more tackles (13) than possessions (12).

“I actually felt that, I knew it was happening!” Sloane said.

“I just couldn’t get involved in the game, so the best thing to do in that situation is to tackle.

“Eventually, it paid off in the last quarter.”

In the final term, Sloane did what he does so often and stood up for his team.

The lion-hearted midfielder willed himself to win 13 possessions and six clearances.

He also took a strong overhead mark inside 50m and kicked the first goal of the quarter to stretch Adelaide’s lead to 10 points.

Sloane, who finished up as Adelaide’s third-highest ball winner with 25, kept tackling.

In just his second game back from a fractured eye socket, the All Australian laid a Club record 15 tackles, and had a game-high 42 pressure acts – 10 more than the next-best Crow.

The visitors, who trailed by as much as 25 points, went on to secure a spirited four-goal win – the Club’s first against Hawthorn since Round One, 2011.

“My first game was against the Hawks and we beat them, and then the weekend of my 21^st Birthday in, maybe, my second (2011) season – the 20^th year of the Club – we won too. I don’t think we’d beaten them since,” Sloane said.

“We didn’t look into the past this week. We’ve just been playing what’s in front of us.

"With the way we started, it was great for us to respond and it’s always nice to win at the MCG.”

The Hawks got their uncontested possession game going early to lead by 24 points at quarter time.

The Crows steadied in the second term, and slowly began to claw back the margin.

By three-quarter time, Adelaide had levelled the contested possession count and nullified Hawthorn’s ability to maintain possession with uncontested marks.

“We were getting done in the contest early on. Probably, us midfielders weren’t getting our hands on it and were getting out-spread a bit,” Sloane said of his team’s slow start.

“Once we generated a bit of ball for our forwards and our pressure ramped up all over the ground, I think that’s what got us going.”

Sloane praised his teammates for “picking up the slack” on Saturday afternoon.

Forward Tom Lynch collected a team-high 31 possessions, 14 marks and a goal.

Sam Jacobs won 43 hit-outs, took six contested marks and also kicked a goal. Andy Otten, who helped Jacobs in the ruck after an injury to Josh Jenkins, reminded the football world of his versatility.  

Playing as forward, Otten took some crucial marks, assisted in two goals and kicked his first since 2013. After a quiet first half, wingman David Mackay kicked a career-high three goals, including back-to-back majors in the last quarter.

“We’ve asked so much from ‘Otto’ (Otten). He’s come back into the AFL team and it was only his second game in 900-odd days,” Sloane said.

“He just continues to build trust in the group and keeps standing up for us. He was amazing today.

“I thought David Mackay was terrific as well. He provided us with a lot of run and some of Kyle Hartigan’s work down back too was fantastic too.”

The Crows returned to Adelaide on Saturday night ahead of next week’s ‘away’ game against Port Adelaide.

“Showdowns are always hard,” Sloane said.

“We’ll enjoy this win tonight and then get ready for the Showdown next week.”