The Swans pushed hard late in front of 38,017 fans, with George Hewett kicking a goal and Gary Rohan seemingly toeing one through off the ground that would have pulled the margin back to six, but the score review showed that Andy Otten had touched it off the boot.

Captain Taylor Walker bagged four goals in the win after his failings in the Crows' 48-point home loss to Collingwood last weekend, while Josh Jenkins and Rory Atkins finished with three apiece as Adelaide notched their first win at the venue in five years.

After trailing by 24 points midway through the second quarter, the Swans launched a stirring comeback after the main break and cut the margin to three but were unable to get their noses in front despite a dominant third term.

"The problems started a lot before the third quarter," Swans coach John Longmire said.

"The first half was six [to] 16 clearances, four [to] 20 first possessions, the first quarter was the problem.

"Unfortunately that puts you on the back foot and you become reactive to how you set up because you need some support. If you're not winning the ball around the contest, you need some support and then you get outnumbered in your front half and it becomes a vicious cycle.

"Our mids didn't touch it much at all in the first half. All of our possessions getters were our defenders and those stats are probably not surprising, we just got well beaten in the middle of the ground."

The Swans enjoyed 20 inside-50s to six in the third quarter but managed just two goals for all their dominance as Adelaide stood firm under extreme pressure.

Harry Cunningham snapped one through before Rohan nailed a six-pointer and was mobbed by teammates welcoming back their speedy swingman, but the Crows had the last say when Paul Seedsman shot truly on the run from the pocket.

The Crows   joined the Swans  and five other clubs on three wins for the year.

And this was all done without star midfield trio Rory Sloane, and  Brad and Matt Crouch, and livewire forward Eddie Betts.

This was an intriguing and brutal game of football that ebbed and flowed through periods of manic pressure from both sides.

Lance Franklin toiled up forward against Daniel Talia and often had other opponents to negotiate. Crows coach Don Pyke employed a second man to patrol the space around Franklin  and, without a second tall target, that seriously curbed his influence.

Franklin still managed to have an impact, bringing the ball to ground whenever possible and wheeling around to kick a booming goal from 60m during the second quarter, but Adelaide enjoyed an evening well below Buddy's usual output.

Sydney are badly missing injured forward Sam Reid, particularly given the amount of ruck work required by Callum Sinclair, who isn't being afforded as many opportunities to rest up forward.

"We can't do much about that, he [Reid] is not going to be back for a while so we have to get it right," Longmire said.

"We've got to win the ball. You can look at the structure...but if you come home with those sort of numbers at half time with your midfield group, you need to win the ball."

Sinclair was up against it at the coalface on Friday. Crows big man Sam Jacobs  was out to prove a point after he was dominated by Brodie Grundy last weekend, although the Swans' ruckman handled himself gamely opposing one of the AFL's best.

The Crows exploded out of the blocks looking to atone for last weekend's shocker against Collingwood at the Adelaide Oval  and threatened to blow Sydney off the park in the early stages.

At one point they had five clearances to nil and seven inside-50s, time and again invading the Swans' defensive fortifications without doing too much damage to the scoreboard. It was the distinct opposite to how the third quarter played out.

For all of Adelaide's dominance, it was the home side which struck first blood when Zak Jones took advantage of some clever aerial work by Franklin and fended off an opponent before piloting the ball through from 40m with the outside of his right boot.

The fired-up visitors eventually found their radar. Walker led the way, kicking a pair in the opening term as memories of last week's poor showing against the Magpies melted away.

Adelaide kicked four goals to three in the second term as Sydney started to even up the inside-50 count, but the Swans were struggling to navigate a safe passage from their defensive end.

The Crows were happy to play one-on-one football for long periods, and Sydney battled in a largely ineffective fashion to combat it.

Kieren Jack took advantage of a Mitch McGovern error late in the second term to spear a goal through from 40m, keeping his side 16 points adrift of last year's beaten grand finalists  and still in the contest.

But they failed to convert their dominant third quarter, and slipped to a second loss to an Adelaide team on home turf this season.

SYDNEY 3.3 6.6 8.9 10.15 (85)
ADELAIDE 4.9 8.10 9.12 12.13 (75)

GOALS
ADELAIDE - Walker 4, Atkins 3, Jenkins 3, Seedsman, Gallucci
SYDNEY - Rohan 2, Jones, Towers, Florent, Franklin, Heeney, Jack, Cunningham, Hewett

BEST
ADELAIDE - Laird, Seedsman, Doudee, Atkins, Walker, Jenkins, Otten
SYDNEY - Rampe, McVeigh, Jones, Lloyd, Heeney, Rohan

INJURIES
ADELAIDE - Hartigan (hamstring)

CROWD
38,017 at the SCG

UMPIRES
Chris Donlon, Leigh Haussen, Simon Meredith

VOTES
Rory Laird (Adelaide) 8
Paul Seedsman (Adelaide) 8
Tom Doudee (Adelaide) 8
Taylor Walker (Adelaide) 8
Zak Jones (Sydney) 7