Adelaide claimed a spot in the AFL top eight for the first time since round 14 and sent a warning to sides further up the ladder with a 26-point smothering of the Brisbane Lions at AAMI Stadium.

Knowing defeat would end their season and also wanting to give retiring captain Mark Ricciuto a fitting send-off in what is likely to be his final game on home turf, the Crows were never headed, eventually winning 12.14 (86) to 8.12 (60) in front of 46,507 fans.

Much credit went to the midfield of Simon Goodwin, Robert Shirley (a tremendous tag on Simon Black), Scott Thompson, Tyson Edwards and Brent Reilly, while Andrew McLeod was ever-creative, Ben Hudson hardy and Nick Gill lively up forward.

Burly Ben Rutten maintained his fine record on Jonathan Brown (one goal), and for that he owed much to Scott Stevens, whose reading of the play and willingness to play in the hole in front of Brown was admirable.

Luke Power, Jed Adcock and Daniel Merritt fought hard for the Lions, but overall they simply got too little from the likes of Brown, Nigel Lappin and Black and as a result bowed out of the finals race.

Both sides lost players before the bounce, Lion Josh Drummond ruled out with knee soreness and replaced by Chris Scott, while young Crow Chris Knights pulled up sore following the warm-up and was withdrawn for Michael Doughty.

The first 10 minutes were played almost entirely in Brisbane's half but some faulty disposal going forward gave the Crows only a scant reward for their territory.

By the time Edwards ran into goal for Adelaide's third, the Lions were finding their feet and the final two majors of the term - one following a trademark contested grab by Brown - went to the visitors, leaving only two points between the sides.

The Crows stepped things up again in the second, Gill in particular inspiring with his energy and pressure as he kicked one goal and set-up another for Goodwin.

Brisbane's defence coped reasonably well given Adelaide's number of forward entries but the sheer weight of attacks meant the Crows were always going to extend their lead, and by halftime it had assumed comfortable proportions.

Needing a significant lift from their stars, the Lions had two third term goals to Black, but at the other end the Crows continued to rush the ball forward.

Though a series of misses kept the Lions in it for much of the term, McLeod's running goal closely followed by a terrific mark and conversion by Graham Johncock in time-on tilted the game irrevocably in Adelaide's favour.

One goal from sealing it in the last, the Crows iced the result six minutes in when McLeod completed a princely blind turn to set-up Jason Porplyzia.

Crows coach Neil Craig said his side was outstanding in the contested ball stakes against a team renowned for winning clearances, but admitted Adelaide's goalkicking still needed work.

"Probably the most important thing for us in the first half was what we call our contested ball against a side that is renowned for it, the intensity we displayed in the first half was excellent," he said.

"We're not in denial of it (goalkicking), we know it's not good enough, we've been lucky to get away with it but we're working on it.

"Our execution around the ground is getting better, particularly our handball."

Lions coach Leigh Matthews concurred on the importance of contested ball and conceded his spearhead Brown had been well beaten by Rutten and his teammates.

"I guess we battled our way in the end but we were very poor early, the contested part of the game we were a mile down in," Matthews said.

"He had plenty of help down there Rutten, but at the same time he did well enough when he didn't have help, that match-up didn't work but it was one of many not going our way."

The Lions were further discomforted by the news Joel Patfull has suffered a broken collar bone and will miss next week's final match against Geelong.

Crow Brent Reilly will await the AFL match review panel's verdict with interest after his report by field umpire Darren Goldspink for rough play in the last term.

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