Powerful was the apt word Adelaide coach Neil Craig found to describe a dismissal of Hawthorn that bodes well for the Crows' AFL future.

Sunday's result also offered a stark reminder of how far the injury-hit defending champions have slipped in 2009 with their record now 5-5.

The Crows played some of the best football of any side this year to establish a yawning 48-point halftime advantage before weathering a desperate Hawthorn fightback to win 16.10 (106) to 12.7 (79) at AAMI Stadium.

Much like the previous week's defeat of Carlton, the Crows had many contributors; Scott Thompson was conspicuous in midfield while rising star nominee-in-waiting Taylor Walker (five goals) and Chris Knights (four) did plenty of damage up front.

Michael Doughty produced another fine tagging job, this time on Sam Mitchell, while Nathan Bock enjoyed a points victory over Lance Franklin and Ben Rutten stuck like glue to Jarryd Roughead.

Adelaide, now a midtable 5-5, have come a long way in the space of two home wins over the Blues and the Hawks to suggest the club's youth injection would deliver plenty of fruit in coming weeks, months and years.

"That's been the most powerful we've looked in terms of scoring capacity for a couple of years," Craig said.

"We've played patches of that in the last three or four weeks but now we're starting to see more and more of it, which is where we want to be.

"It's a really important win, not only for where we want to go but it was also against quality opposition - our squad got exposed to a third quarter where you would expect the reigning premier not just to sit there and cop that."

Hawthorn's best included the brilliant Cyril Rioli (four goals), Brad Sewell, Jordan Lewis and ruckman Simon Taylor, but there were injury concerns for Campbell Brown (knee) and Chance Bateman (leg).

Craig had promised to maintain his push for speedy play and free-scoring, and by quarter time this was no idle threat.

Capitalising on an error-riddled start by the Hawks, Adelaide streamed through the middle of the ground and had numerous avenues in attack to kick 7.1, their best start of the year, to the visitors' 2.1.

The weight of Adelaide's numbers were again overwhelming in the second, Walker being isolated in the forward 50m zone to take his halftime tally to a career-best five.

The half ended with the sight of Franklin wandering around in defence, a despairing move by coach Alastair Clarkson that neatly summed up his side's predicament.

Hawthorn's lowest first half score since 2007 required a reaction and, against opponents who had not won a third term since round four, there was a glimmer of hope.

Inspired by Sewell and Lewis, the Hawks built a sizeable clearance advantage to reduce the margin by more than half at the final break.

But they were unable to sustain the effort in the last as Knights bobbed up for the goals that made the game safe.

Clarkson lamented his side's poor disposal early on.

"We didn't help ourselves with the way we entered inside 50m, we butchered a lot of footy going across the arc," the Hawks' boss said.

"Sometimes those inside 50m entries were too shallow and they just had a wave of players running straight through the middle of the ground, which gave them a lot of opportunity inside 50m with space and quick movement.

"That's the way they like to play and we unfortunately gave them that."

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