Fremantle's well worn drawing board will be revisited yet again this week, after Adelaide shrugged off its 11,000km road trip to record a hard-fought 9.16 (70) to 9.5 (59) victory at Subiaco Oval.

After the Dockers seemed to have turned a corner with a win over Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium last week, Chris Connolly's men were back in reverse, with skill errors and indecision permeating their play.

As for the Crows, after visiting four states in the first four rounds, their endeavour was worthy of the four points but came at a cost, with Brett Burton reported for striking Steven Dodd and Ian Perrie suffering a serious knee injury.

Leading at every quarter after an early three goal burst, the Crows were challenged but not threatened by Fremantle, who now facing the daunting prospect of St Kilda away and West Coast at home.

Adelaide was forced into a late team change, with Tyson Edwards pulling out with an injured calf, replaced by Hayden Skipworth.

After a perfectly observed silence following the Last Post to mark the Anzac round, the emotion seemed to have got to the players, who started a push and shove before the opening bounce.

When the handbags were put away, Adelaide served up a storming start, dominating the centre bounces and putting the Dockers under immediate hammer.

The Crows' superior skills and better distribution were evident from the first bounce, scoring three straight in the game's first seven minutes to set down an immediate gauntlet.

Matthew Pavlich, apparently tired of not getting any service, began to provide some himself, with a looping kick inside 50 finding Graham Polak who scored the Dockers' second.

After Graham Johncock gifted Farmer his second, the Dockers were gaining some momentum, but that was quickly snuffed out by Rhett Biglands and Burton, who extended the halftime lead to 28 points.

With Dockers supporters venting at Connolly as he returned to the coaching box after halftime, his players responded as if they had received a spray of their own.

Showing increased urgency, Polak's mark over the top of Johncock gave the home side the perfect start.

Burton's report, for striking Dodd behind play, fired up the Freo faithful further and when Farmer rewarded Shaun McManus' patient pass with a mark and goal, the margin was back to 12.

However, the progress was quickly wiped out with elementary errors, with even skipper Peter Bell guilty of procrastination.

After Matthew Carr's heavy contact with umpire Kieron Nicholls left the whistleblower on the floor, the sting flowed out of Freo, with Burton's long strike settling the visitors going into three quarter time.

The opening exchanges of the last term were lit up by the courage of McPharlin and Perrie, with a kamikaze marking contest leaving the Crow prone and obviously hurt.

Despite Matthew Carr and Pavlich chipping away at the lead, Simon Goodwin's sweet goal after another costly Freo turnover put the contest to bed.

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