BRAD Crouch's ability to shrug off a lack of match fitness to star in the Crows' drought-breaking Showdown win over Port Adelaide has earned the praise of coach Brenton Sanderson.
Crouch racked up 28 disposals and a crucial final-term goal in his first game back from a broken leg suffered early in the season.
The second-year midfielder was just one of several members of Adelaide's on-ball division that stood up against the Power, who have generally swept all before them this year.
"Port Adelaide are a contested ball side, I think their numbers are the best in the competition, but we had some hard nuts in there today," Sanderson said.
"(Patrick) Dangerfield, (Scott) Thompson, Crouch, (Richard) Douglas, those boys were pretty solid.
"[Crouch] is one of the best young kids in the game, came second by a whisker last year in the Rising Star…he's still not match fit yet either.
"Really important long-term player for us but we saw today how important for us he is right now as well."
The Crows now sit a win out of the eight, having benefited from losses suffered by Essendon, Gold Coast and North Melbourne.
Power coach Ken Hinkley admitted his side was simply outworked by the Crows, who easily won contested possession 163-133.
In the games Adelaide has lost this year Sanderson has often lamented his side's poor kicking efficiency.
At half-time on Sunday it again looked as though it would hurt the Crows, sitting at just 46 per cent compared to Port's 61 per cent.
But in the second half Sanderson's players lifted it to 66 per cent and saw off a late Port Adelaide charge.
"The messages all week and at every break today was to keep taking the game on – particularly in these big games and this was sort of a finals atmosphere and a finals pressure," he said.
"We've talked about, you guys have talked about it with me about being bold and being brave and we certainly kept taking the game on.
"Eventually it opened up and we were able to score some goals when it mattered."
Sanderson also hailed the performance of ruckman Sam Jacobs, who was adjudged best afield and took out the Showdown Medal.
The ruckman lost several kilograms over the club's pre-season and said his leaner frame had allowed him to cover more ground this season.
Jacobs collected 19 possessions, 36 hit-outs and booted three crucial goals in one of the games of his career.
"I'm happy he's on my team, I love what this guy does," Sanderson said.
"He's a ruckman, but he plays as an extra midfielder for us and he hit the scoreboard for us today, he gave us first use.
"It was a complete performance."
Both Sam Kerridge (foot) and Rory Laird (quad) are in doubt to face Greater Western Sydney next weekend after being withdrawn late for Sunday's contest.
Sanderson said Kerridge had a "hot spot" in his foot and wouldn't train until Thursday in order to give the area of concern time to settle down.
Laird tweaked his quad at training on Saturday and is "touch and go" to face the Giants.
