Adelaide's superior skills and teamwork have overwhelmed Carlton by 64 points in front of a rapturous crowd of 41,157 at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

The Crows set up the 18.16 (124) to 9.6 (60) win - their ninth in 23 matches against the Blues and fifth in eight at AAMI Stadium - with a 5.2 to nil surge in the first 10 minutes and went on to lead by 40 points at quarter-time, 21 at half-time and 57 at three-quarter-time.

The 64-point margin was only two points short of Adelaide's biggest win against Carlton - 66 points in 1994 when the Crows also recorded their highest score against the Blues - 22.18 (150).

This free-flowing contest was in stark contrast to the teams' tight scrap at AAMI Stadium in round 10 last season when Adelaide won by 14 points - 9.17 (71) to 8.9 (57).

This time, Carlton challenged Adelaide strongly in only the second quarter, adding 6.2 to 3.1, including 5.0 to 1.0 in the last 11 minutes of the term.

Matthew Lappin kicked three of the Blues' six second-quarter goals.

The Crows over-used the ball in the second term - usually a problem quarter for them - and paid the penalty when some of their 53 handpasses (to Carlton's 22) came unstuck, just as the Blues had turned the ball over too often, mainly in defence, in the first quarter.

By the finish they had amassed 388 disposals (224 kicks, 164 handpasses) to Carlton's 359 (214, 145) and had 19 more inside-50 entries - 59 to 40. The difference, other than in the second term, was that Adelaide simply used the ball much better.

Much of Adelaide's momentum started from the running rebound of Andrew McLeod, Graham Johncock and Nathan Bassett across half-back.

McLeod was at his mercurial best, racking up 34 disposals (26 kicks, eight handpasses), and Bassett, with 29 (13 and 16) and Johncock, with 29 (19 and 10), weren't far behind him.

Simon Goodwin (32 disposals) was the busiest of the Crows' busy midfielders, and Brett Burton was his usual acrobatic self across half-forward with two goals before leaving the field early in the final quarter with his right arm hanging limply - although he was later cleared of any serious injury.

Mark Ricciuto booted three goals - two in the second quarter and one at the start of the third term - after not touching the ball in the first quarter.

Ricciuto moved into the midfield late in the third quarter and Goodwin went to full-forward - and promptly kicked a long goal after taking a spectacular 'hanger' on the outer flank at the northern end.

Trent Hentschel was also a dangerous forward with three goals and big Ken McGregor got two.

Hard-running midfielder/defender Heath Scotland was probably Carlton's best player, Ian Prendergast, Corey McGrath and Adam Bentick did some good work in defence, Marc Murphy again underlined his exceptional talent and Lappin was useful apart from the three goals in the second term.

Nick Stevens did well to recover from a heavy collision with teammate Kade Simpson in the first quarter, but he, Anthony Koutoufides and Lance Whitnall, among others, could have done more.

Brendan Fevola, guarded closely by Ben Rutten, won the ball strongly enough at times but 2.2 was a modest return from his 14 kicks, many of them too far from goal.

Adelaide coach Neil Craig described the win as 'a very good performance', and added: "First of all, there was a response from our performance last week (the three-point loss to Richmond at Telstra Dome) and that's always important to do that - to respond positively and quickly, which the playing group did."

"Losing (Tyson) Edwards (ankle) and (Ben) Hart (broken arm) - we all know where they sit in the AFL competition - and for (Hayden) Skipworth and (Chris) Knights to come in and to get that sort of performance was really pleasing for the playing group."

"I think we had only four of our senior leadership group in that team today. The rest were made up of younger players and backbone players. It was a great win for us."

Carlton coach Denis Pagan said he thought his players' spirit was 'terrific' and they had 'won the contested ball' (the hard ball gets were 41 to 33 Carlton's way).

"Our start and our usage really killed us," he said. The amount of times we got the ball and had a chance to go forward, we turned it over."

"A side like Adelaide that are so classy with their skill level just made us pay every time."

ADELAIDE: 7.5, 10.6, 16.12, 18.16 (124)
CARLTON: 1.1, 7.3, 8.3, 9.6 (60)
GOALS – Adelaide: Ricciuto 3, Hentschel 3, Burton 2, Thompson 2, McGregor 2, Doughty, Johncock, Reilly, Stevens, Bode, Goodwin
Carlton: Lappin 3, Fevola 2, Murphy, Whitnall, Koutoufides, Simpson
BEST – Adelaide: McLeod, Goodwin, Johncock, Bassett, Thompson, Doughty Rutten, Massie, Shirley
Carlton: Scotland, Murphy, Lappin, Prendergast, Wiggins, Bentick
INJURIES - Adelaide: Burton (shoulder)
CARLTON Nil
REPORTS - Nil
UMPIRES - Kennedy, Sully, Grun
CROWD - 41,157 at AAMI Stadium