When Kurt Tippett, and then Shaun McKernan was injured in the first half of Balfours Showdown XXXIII at AAMI Stadium on Saturday night, the question was posed, ‘where are Adelaide’s goals going to come from?’

The Crows were already without leading goalkicker Taylor Walker through suspension, and injured small forwards Ian Callinan and Jared Petrenko. And the loss of Tippett (head knock) and McKernan (cheekbone) robbed Adelaide of another two forward-50m targets.

Coach Brenton Sanderson shuffled his line-up, moving Ricky Henderson - playing his first game since round nine - from a wing into the forward line and stationing substitute Brodie Martin, who like Henderson has played predominantly as a defender this season, alongside him.

The moves paid off, with the unlikely pair combining to kick more than half (nine) of Adelaide’s 17 goals. Six-goal hero Henderson provided a strong lead-up option, taking five marks inside 50m and collecting 20 possessions. His previous best return in front of goals was three majors in consecutive weeks against Essendon and West Coast in mid-2010.

Martin kicked 3.2 from 13 possessions in less than a half of football, while Tim McIntyre chimed in with two goals on debut.

Midfielder David Mackay, who is also enjoying a change in role after switching from the wing to half-back, described the performance as a great “team effort”.

“Ricky has always promised to do something like that. He’s a bit of a freak,” Mackay told afc.com.au.

“Brodie Martin was good as well, coming on and kicking three. That’s what you need when tall blokes like Kurt and Shaun go down. You need someone to stand up and I thought we shared the load pretty well.

“When those guys went down Ricky went forward and Paddy Dangerfield had to go forward for most of the second half as well. They competed against bigger blokes all night and it was really important for us.

“We didn’t have any height, but we knew we had speed up there and that if we could put pressure on it would go a way towards us kicking a winning score.”

The injuries to Tippett and McKernan meant in-form big man Sam Jacobs was left to play a lone hand in the ruck. Jacobs took up the challenge, amassing a career-best 61 hit-outs and also 19 disposals.

“Sauce (Jacobs) is fantastic and he’s getting better every week,” Mackay said.

“It was only his 50^th game tonight, and it’s pretty frightening to think what he’s going to be like with a little bit more time and keeps improving. He’s got a great feel for where to hit the ball and has great mobility around the ground.

“He was terrific and I’m just really happy for him.”

Prolific midfielder Scott Thompson also enjoyed a night out, winning 32 possessions (20 contested), 12 clearances and setting up two goals.

Despite losing two players from their interchange rotations early in the match, the Crows were able to outscore the Power eight goals-to-five in the second half and run out comfortable 58-point winners. The victory was Adelaide’s third-biggest of the season, short of the Club’s 69-point wins over Gold Coast and Carlton.

“It was good we were able to go on with it (and win by a big margin) because we probably haven’t done that too many times this year,” Mackay said.

“I know I was pretty knackered towards the end.It was a really good effort. The second half especially was great and to go on with it being two players down was great.”