The win was only St Kilda's fifth win at AAMI Stadium in 18 years and also improves the club's poor interstate record, which was at a lowly 28 per cent beofre this match.
Justin Koschitzke followed up his good performance last week with an imposing showing up forward, booting four goals and getting the better of Ben Rutten throughout.
The Saints opened up a 21-point lead midway through the third quarter, but saw the Crows fight back to close the gap to one-point in the last quarter before kicking five goals to seal the victory.
Nick Dal Santo was great for the Saints through the midfield, with 35 possessions, while Sam Fisher was great in defence keeping the Crows to just 10 goals.
While, Adelaide was close to St Kilda for most of the game, they didn’t have the firepower up forward despite both Kurt Tippett and Jason Porplyzia kicking three goals apiece.
The Crows managed to get plenty of the ball, largely through handballs but did not have a consistent target inside 50.
Adelaide’s night was further soured by another injury setback to forward Trent Hentschel, not taking the field in the second half with a suspected quad strain.
In a game that ebbed and flowed, the Crows kicked the opening goal of the game through Porplyzia, but despite kicking into a significant breeze, the Saints hit back with three quick goals to Nick Riewoldt, Koschitzke and Steven King, as the talls started to dominate for the visitors.
The Saints were applying plenty of pressure around the stoppages, King in particular dominating in the ruck early on, while the midfielders squeezed their Adelaide counterparts.
Despite creating plenty of openings it was Adelaide that notched its second goal against the run of play, Hentschel marking strongly on the goal line and kicking his first goal in the competition for more than two and a half years following his return from a knee injury.
In the shadows of quarter time, the Saints deservedly restored their two goal lead as Koschitzke again outmarked Rutten to slot his second goal.
The Crows raced out of the blocks at the start of the second term, Kurt Tippett kicking a couple of majors, while at the other end, a magnificent last ditch tackle by Graham Johncock on Adam Schneider denied the small-forward a certain goal.
Both sides appeared to be struggling with the wind as numerous kicks missed their targets, but it was the Crows who were starting to settle, showing a greater sense of urgency.
That urgency allowed Ivan Maric to kick the Crows third of the quarter, the home side hitting the front briefly in the second quarter before Leigh Montagna launched a long bomb from outside 50m to take back the lead for the final time.
Montagna, playing in his 100th match, racked up an impressive 18 disposals in the first half and he was again influential in the build-up to Farren Ray’s strong mark and goal.
The half time siren denied Stephen Milne the chance to extend the Saints lead as the visitors headed to half time leading by 10 points.
With just 30 seconds on the clock in the third quarter, Jarryn Geary capitalised on an Adelaide mistake to put the Saints further in front.
Bernie Vince kicked a quick reply with a snap from the boundary, but again the Saints kicked two quick goals through Stephen Milne and Michael Gardiner to give them a 21 point lead as the Saints man-on-man strategy started to control the game.
However, the Crows responded with goals to Taylor Walker and a brace from the ever influential Porplyzia, but wasted a guilt-edged chance when Walker hit the post with Porplyzia free.
With a tense final quarter in store the Saints kicked two early behinds, but it was the Crows who slotted the first goal, Tippett hauling down Zac Dawson to close the gap to one-point.
The game was in the balance, but it was the Saints who stood tall, Schneider crumbing and snapping before Koschitzke marked strongly from Riewoldt’s errant kick to open the lead to 14 points.
The game was wrapped up when Riewoldt and Goddard kicked goals in time on to put the icing on the cake for the Saints.
Adelaide 2.2 5.3 9.8 10.9 (69)
St Kilda 4.2 6.7 10.7 15.11 (101)
GOALS
Adelaide: Porplyzia 3, Tippett 3, Hentschel, Maric, Vince, Walker
St Kilda: Koschitzke 4, Schneider 2, Riewoldt 2, King, Ray, Montagna, Geary, Milne, Gardiner, Goddard
BEST
Adelaide: Porplyzia, Thompson, Johncock, Tippett, Edwards, Bock, Maric
St Kilda: Koschitzke, Montagna, Fisher, Dal Santo, Baker, Gram, Schneider
INJURIES
Adelaide: Hentschel (quad)
St Kilda: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: McBurney, Wenn, Ryan
Official crowd: 41,189 at AAMI Stadium
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL.
