It was a hard slog and rarely pretty, but the Adelaide Crows posted their ninth win of the season against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night, grinding their way to an 15-point victory.

On a day when Brisbane's usually glorious winter weather turned suddenly wet, the Crows were made to work for their their 10.15 (75) to 8.12 (60) win as the Lions - minus superstar Jonathan Brown - jumped out of the blocks early, then staged a gutsy last-quarter fightback.

Adelaide had gone into the final term 14 points in front, a seemingly decisive margin given the greasy conditions. But the Lions, celebrating their 10th anniversary and Michael Voss' 200th game as skipper, came back from the dead to twice close the margin to as little as three points.

The Crows, however, were able steady and the final result showed why Neil Craig's is so highly regarded by many pundits.

Outplayed early as the Lions ran hard when in possession and flooded back en masse when without the ball, Adelaide was unable to kick a goal in the first quarter and, at one stage, was reduced to kicking the ball back and forth across the middle of the ground for the best part of five minutes.

The Lions led by 17 points at quarter-time and the 27,516-strong Gabba crowd probably thought they were in for a 10th birthday treat.

But from then on the Crows had the better of the contest, kicking 10 goals to five during the last three quarters. The Crows' adjustment often involved pairing two runners together in tandem to advance possession and it enabled them to gain the upper hand when the Lions tired in the wake of all their early running.

To their credit the Lions picked themselves up off the canvas to come again in the final term, only to discover that the Crows had an answer for every challenge they issued.

For the Crows, Kris Massie, Nathan Bassett and Tyson Edwards worked tirelessly to amass 73 disposals between them, while Scott Stevens was surprisingly prolific with his 21 touches.

Trent Hentschel proved as adept at ground level as in the air from his key forward post and always looked a danger in booting three goals. A strong pack mark in the second quarter was evidence of the quality of his play and completely belied the adverse weather.

The Lions were best served by Luke Power, who amassed 34 possessions and Jason Akermanis, who had 29 touches and always looked threatening up forward. One of Akermanis' second-term goals, a freakish left footed soccer from hard up against the right point post, would have done any World Cup striker proud.

Joel Patfull, playing only his fourth AFL game, did a good defensive good on Crows skipper Mark Ricciuto, while Troy Selwood kept Simon Goodwin to only 16 possessions in another good tagging performance.

The battle of the ruck, with Jamie Charman absent for the Lions and Matt Clarke out for the Crows, finished pretty much even. The Lions' Beau McDonald and Cameron Wood combined for 34 hitouts, while the Crows' Rhett Biglands and Ivan Maric amassed 38 knocks.

The Lions suffered a blow before the match, when Brown, who had been troubled by hip inflammation, pulled out. His place was taken by elevated rookie Marty Pask, who made his AFL debut.

Given that the Crows suffered a 141-point loss in their last visit two years ago and hadn't won at the Gabba since 2001, Adelaide coach Neil Craig rated the win as the Crows' best for the year.

"This time a couple of years ago we suffered a really bad loss and the Brisbane Lions have had the wood on us the last six times," said Craig after the win.

"So to win up here on an away trip with some of the injuries we had - I thought it was the best win for the year.

"The real pleasing thing was that we start poorly and they began fantastically well and in the past that would have been it for us, so it was just a fantastic result for us."

While Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews said he thought his team was "good around the congested area", he had misgivings.

"We were inaccurate - I think from shots we kicked 8.10 and they kicked 10.9 or something," Matthews said.

"But that was a really key part of the game, because not only did we miss a couple we could have kicked, if there was one part of the game that was the difference, it was their kick-ins compared to ours.

"They killed us on the kick-ins. I wish they would have been run out of bounds! Every time we scored a behind - and there were plenty of them - they generated scoring opportunities. Our defence of the kick-in was very poor.

"They were very good at defending our kick-in and we were poor. On the other side, their offence from kick-ins was much better than ours."

BRISBANE LIONS: 3.3, 4.8, 5.11, 8.12 (60)
ADELAIDE: 0.4, 3.7, 7.13, 10.15 (75)

GOALS – Brisbane Lions: Akermanis 3, Power, Moody, Rischitelli, Bradshaw, Roe
Adelaide: Hentschel 3, McGregor, Reilly, Ricciuto, Burton, McLeod, Johncock, Thompson
BEST – Brisbane Lions: Power, Akermanis, Black, Notting, Voss, Copeland, Sherman
Adelaide: Bassett, Edwards, Hentschel, Stevens, Doughty, Johncock, McLeod, Massie
Injuries - Adelaide: van Berlo (suspected fractured collarbone), McGregor (rolled ankle)
Brisbane Lions: Nil
CHANGES – Brisbane Lions: Brown (hip) replaced in selected side by Pask
UMPIRES - McLaren, Quigley, Head
CROWD - 27,516 at the Gabba