Adelaide has romped to its biggest Showdown win in seven seasons after savaging a lacklustre Port Adelaide by 58 points in a devastating display at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

The Crows kicked 13 goals to four in the first half to all but kill the contest en route to a 22.12 (144) to 11.20 (86) win.

It was a complete performance from the Crows, who dominated contested possession and then opened Port up on the outside, creating a feast for forwards Tom Lynch (six goals), Eddie Betts (five) and Josh Jenkins (four).

But the match also exposed serious concerns at Port Adelaide, which began to surface in their Round One win over St Kilda.

Adelaide won the first half uncontested possession by 56, as it won the ball through its hard working midfield, and then cut holes through Port on the outside.

Port midfielders Sam Gray, Brett Ebert and Travis Boak collected just nine opening term possessions between them, as Adelaide dominated early possession and then gave excellent service to one of the most dangerous forward lines in the competition.

To three-quarter time Lynch, Betts, Jenkins and Taylor Walker had kicked 16 goals between them.

Lynch wins first Showdown Medal

Betts and Jenkins kicked four opening term goals between them as Adelaide kicked out to a 32-point quarter-time lead, but the real avalanche was yet to begin.

Adelaide kicked six goals in six minutes to open the second quarter and led by 60 points when Jenkins kicked his third goal 11 minutes into the term.

Rory Laird has 16 first-half possessions across half-back and started many attacking forays, while Jenkins showed strength and speed up forward.

Port didn’t have a match-up for the athletic big man as he led defenders up the ground and then beat them back to goal on numerous occasions.

The win was Crows coach Don Pyke’s first as a Senior Coach on a day where almost everything went to plan. He said the evenness of the team performance was what pleased him the most.

“We want to be a really well-rounded footy and I thought the effort of our back half today was really pleasing," Pyke said.

“They’re aided by the pressure that goes on the ball, so the mids…and our forwards, it starts with them.

“We came, we played the way we wanted to for large periods, we got the four points which was all we got, but next week’s another challenge with Richmond in Melbourne.”

Adelaide kicked 8.2 to to nil from 15 minutes into the first term to eight minutes into the second, as Port simply couldn’t get hold of the football. At half-time eight Power players had five disposals or less.

The Crows' run of goals was only broken when debutant Dougall Howard snapped his first career goal over his head in the goalsquare late in the second term.

Port briefly stemmed some bleeding before the long break but the massacre continued during the third term as Adelaide added another six goals to three.

Lynch finished with six goals, 21 disposals and eight marks in a Showdown Medal-winning performance, while the Crows midfield shone and continued to show there is life after Dangerfield.

Scott Thompson finished with 29 disposals, 15 of them contested, while Brad Crouch continued to work back to match fitness with 23 touches.

Robbie Gray (37 disposals) played a virtual lone hand for Port, while Aaron Young produced a handy cameo with four second-half goals.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley said his side was simply outplayed all facets of the match.

He paid credit to the Crows but conceded his side had some issues that needed addressing.

“Their system in defence worked really effectively and we were poor at trying to challenge them,’’ Hinkley said.

“They got the game on their terms and they played the game on their terms, not just in our forward-50, or in the middle of the ground, they got it in all three parts of the ground today…

“We had a really poor day today, there’s no hiding from that. We had a poor day.

“But we’re going to come back and we’ll bounce back and we’ll go back to training and we’ll review the game really hard first and we’ll look at the things we got really wrong.”

 

 

ADELAIDE            6.4   13.5  19.7   22.12   (144)
PORT ADELAIDE   1.2   4.8    7.12   11.20   (86)

GOALS
Adelaide: Lynch 6, Betts 5, Jenkins 4, Walker, McGovern 2, Laird, Brad Crouch, Milera
Port Adelaide: Young 4, Wines, Boak 2, Howard, Wingard, Robbie Gray

BEST
Adelaide: Lynch, Laird, Talia, Lever, Betts, Mackay, Thompson
Port Adelaide: Robbie Gray, Young, Hombsch, Wines, Pittard

INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
Port Adelaide: Westhoff (dislocated finger), Wingard (hamstring)

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Donlon, Chamberlain, Wallace

Official crowd: 51,585 at Adelaide Oval