Port Adelaide has taken the head-to-head Showdown lead, moving to 25-24 after defeating Adelaide 12.15 (87) to 5.8 (38) in the 49th installment on Saturday night.

The Crows suffered two big injury blows in the carnage of the first term, with Ned McHenry and Lachlan Murphy ruled out of the game. 

Four minutes on, Crows captain Rory Sloane, making his comeback from a four-game absence following surgery to fix a detached retina in his left eye, departed the field with a nasty cut above the same eye, but he returned to action.

Port led 2.4 to 1.0 at quarter-time and created a 21-point lead midway through the second stanza before Adelaide rallied, only to be cruelled by missing three late goal chances.

The Power were 20 points up at half-time with the Crows scoring just one goal through the opening two quarters, and that was from a first-term free kick to Jimmy Rowe.

Adelaide showed some pluck to sneak within 13 points some 10 minutes into the third term, but it was the closest it got thereafter.

PORT ADELAIDE   2.4    4.6    9.10   12.15 (87)
ADELAIDE              1.0    1.4    4.5      5.8 (38)

GOALS
Port Adelaide: Marshall 3, Dixon 2, Georgiades 2, Rozee, Drew, Fantasia, Farrell, Motlop
Adelaide: Thilthorpe 2, Fogarty, Rowe, Sloane

BEST
Port Adelaide: Dixon, Lycett, Boak, Amon, Rozee, Farrell
Adelaide: Seedsman, Laird, Sloane, Keays, Schoenberg

INJURIES
Port Adelaide: Houston (arm)
Adelaide: McHenry (concussion), Murphy (ankle)

SUBSTITUTES
Port Adelaide: Martin Frederick (replaced Houston)
Adelaide: Andrew McPherson (replaced McHenry)

CROWD: TBC at Adelaide Oval