Adelaide clinically steamrolled St Kilda by 63 points at Telstra Dome, leaving the Saints barely hanging in the top eight, let alone looking like AFL premiership contenders.

Adding to the Saints' woes, two more big names were added to their star-studded injury list.

Veteran midfielder Robert Harvey went off before halftime with a hamstring injury and fullback Max Hudghton damaged his right knee in a tangle with Crows skipper Mark Ricciuto early in the final term, although it did not appear to be a major injury.

The Crows, by contrast, will enter their mid-season break in extremely threatening shape, having carried out their 18.15 (123) to 8.12 (60) dispatching of St Kilda with machine-like efficiency and ruthlessness.

The tone of the night was clearly set in the opening 19 minutes, when Adelaide scored 5.3 to 0.1, the ball hardly going into St Kilda's attacking side of the centre during that period.

While the Saints scored the final two goals of the opening term, it provided only a brief respite, with Adelaide kicking the first four majors of the second quarter to surge away to a seven-goal lead.

The Crows' dominance was set up in the centre square, where ruckman Rhett Biglands provided some pin-point hit-outs to help his side's little men constantly drive the ball forward.

Simon Goodwin starred at ground level, racking up possessions while keeping star Saint Nick Dal Santo quiet, with Tyson Edwards, Kris Massie, Brent Reilly and Robert Shirley also good in the clinches.

Adelaide also did well to lock the ball into its attack once it went forward, with the Saints often turning the ball over as they attempted to stream out of defence, largely due to the pressure applied by the Crows' forwards and Adelaide's ability to block space further up the ground.

Crows tall forwards Ken McGregor and Trent Hentschel were both useful targets, while medium-sized forwards Ricciuto and Scott Thompson caused plenty of damage, as did little man Matthew Bode.

The Saints' forwards had very few opportunities and on the occasions when their teammates did send the ball forward it was often with poorly-placed kicks.

Full-forward Fraser Gehrig became so frustrated with the lack of good delivery, he regularly ventured up into the midfield to try to extract the ball himself and take out some of his angst by crashing into Adelaide opponents.

Adelaide defender Scott Stevens, whose career has taken a huge surge forward in recent weeks, did a good job to keep Saints star forward Nick Riewoldt quiet.

And half-backs Andrew McLeod and Graham Johncock constantly swept the ball away from defence.

Midfielders Brendon Goddard tried hard for the Saints to be his side's best performer.

St Kilda coach Grant Thomas said Hudghton's knee was badly corked, but he would be able to play after the break.

The extent of Harvey's hamstring injury was uncertain.

Thomas was full of praise for the Crows, saying their tackling was ferocious and he could not remember the last time the Saints were beaten so emphatically.

"They hit us really hard, their tackling was superb and the pressure they put on us even compounded to when there wasn't pressure on us," he said.

"They are far and away the best team we've played, we had no excuses tonight."

Thomas was also highly critical of running defender Aaron Fiora for dropping an uncontested mark late in the third quarter, when he ducked his head and let the ball slide through his fingers, with the coach sending him to the bench.

"We as a team expect more than that and he knew that," Thomas said.

"You're not going to win games of football with players that aren't at least giving their all and it has a flow-on effect to the rest of the team and an uplifting effect on the opposition," he said.

Adelaide coach Neil Craig said it was one of the Crows' best performances of the season, particularly coming six days after a hard-fought victory over Brisbane at the Gabba.

"Considering the short break and the trip to Brisbane ... certainly our players need to be complimented on the way they performed, it was a very, very good win," Craig said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP