Adelaide has continued its dominance of Greater Western Sydney and kept up its late finals push with a regulation 68-point victory at Spotless Stadium.
The Crows had won all four previous games against the GIANTS by an average of 91 points and it was a similar story on Saturday afternoon, as they cruised to a 20.20 (140) to 9.18 (72) result against a listless home side.
The result lifts Adelaide into the top eight ahead of Gold Coast, who were hosting Collingwood at Metricon Stadium in another pivotal contest later on Saturday.
Rory Sloane, Brodie Martin, Brad Crouch and Matthew Wright led a balanced effort from the Crows, while Eddie Betts kicked a season's best five goals in a sharp performance from the small forward.
The only real concern for the visitors were injuries, with Patrick Dangerfield hurting his left knee in the third term, although he was able to return and play out the game mostly in the forward line.
Just days after announcing his retirement at season's end, Ben Rutten also had a day to forget, caught high by a stray elbow and substituted out of the game midway through the first quarter with concussion.
It had no impact on the contest, however, with the Crows enjoying a percentage-boosting day ahead of another crunch game next week, when they host Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.
"Seven games to go, we've just got to keep winning," coach Brenton Sanderson said.
"The Hawks will be a great test for us, we really respect the way they play and the way they go about it and they're coming off a loss last night as well.
"We'll have to be at our best next week to beat them."
Tim Mohr was excellent for the GIANTS, keeping Taylor Walker to three kicks and just one behind, with Shane Mumford on his 28th birthday, Adam Treloar, Rhys Palmer and Dylan Shiel continuing their impressive recent form.
But the GIANTS, who had demonstrated enormous improvement over the past six weeks, might be battling fatigue during the run home ahead of next week's daunting trip to Perth to meet Fremantle.
It was a third win in four games for the Crows, who host Hawthorn on Friday night in another critical match for their September hopes.
There were memories of GWS' bad old days in the first term, with the home side being second to most contests and appearing well off the pace set by the slick Crows.
Strangely Dangerfield, who has terrorised the GIANTS in the past, was left virtually on his lonesome throughout the first term.
But it was Sloane and Martin causing the early damage as Adelaide kicked 5.6 to just eight behinds for a 28-point lead at the first change.
The GIANTS' woes continued in the second term, stretching their run of behinds to 10 before Will Hoskin-Elliott finally kicked their first goal 13 minutes into the second term.
Tomas Bugg then kicked another from a slight angle as GWS showed some signs of life, but it was short-lived as the Crows ended the half with four straight goals.
"When you kick eight points in the first quarter, you could see the belief start to drop away when they weren't going through the big sticks," GWS coach Leon Cameron said afterwards.
"That's a mental attitude and you have to be able to keep pushing through it.
"That was disappointing.
"I know we've been up for a little while, but the energy just to close space and put pressure on them, you could see our pressure was 10 per cent off.
"Scoreboard pressure is a big factor and when we don't put it on and keep the opposition from scoring, you can see the confidence levels of some our players drop a bit.
"They have to grow up and get better at it."
Betts kicked two goals in the final 90 seconds for a well-earned 47-point lead at the main break.
The GIANTS then had a crack early in the second half, kicking three of the first four goals to get the margin back to 34 points.
The Crows were doing it easy, however, responding with nine straight scoring shots – three of them goals – as they took a 60-point lead into the final change before strolling to an important victory.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 0.8 2.10 5.14 9.18 (72)
ADELAIDE 5.6 10.9 15.14 20.20 (140)
GOALS
Greater Western Sydney: Palmer 2, Mumford, Coniglio, Hoskin-Elliott, Bugg, Williams, Patton, Cameron
Adelaide: Betts 5, Podsiadly 3, Wright 2, Jenkins 2, Sloane 2, Jacobs, Mackay, Smith, Martin, Lynch, Crouch
BEST
Greater Western Sydney: Mohr, Mumford, Palmer, Treloar, Shiel, Williams
Adelaide: Sloane, Martin, Crouch, Henderson, Wright, Betts
INJURIES
Greater Western Sydney: TBC
Adelaide: Rutten (face), Dangerfield (knee)
SUBSTITUTES
Greater Western Sydney: Josh Kelly replaced Kristian Jaksch in the third quarter
Adelaide: Rory Laird replaced Ben Rutten in the first quarter
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Hay, Foot, Jeffery
Official Crowd: 8,383 at Spotless Stadium
