The Swans had few answers to the youthful home side as the Crows won every quarter on the way to a 15.13 (103) to 11.9 (75) scoreline.
While old pros Simon Goodwin and Tyson Edwards were among Adelaide's best, it was the next generation - Bernie Vince, Taylor Walker, Jared Petrenko, Andy Otten and David Mackay - who provided evidence that the club's rebuild may yet run ahead of schedule.
Graham Johncock also excelled, and gifted forward Trent Hentschel responded to coach Neil Craig's pre-match suggestion that he had earned a round one berth by slotting three goals, a tally matched by Kurt Tippett and Walker.
The Swans had much less to enthuse about, their unchanged game style broken down comfortably by the well-drilled Crows, before they regained some ground by tucking away the final three goals of the night.
Spearhead Barry Hall outmuscled Adelaide's temporary fullback Scott Stevens to bag four goals, and Brett Kirk offered his typical grit to the cause.
Playing the stadium's second match of the night after Port Adelaide ran away from St Kilda, the Crows and Swans fought it out in their contrasting styles, Adelaide's zone play up against the committed man-on-man ethic of Sydney.
Much of the early going was scrappy, Vince and Walker exhibiting their considerable talents for Adelaide to nail early goals, despite the odd passage of wrongheaded Adelaide play upfield when handballs went astray.
Eleven points clear at the first break, Adelaide built on that in the second to lead by 31 points at half time.
Another five Adelaide goals flowed through in the third, giving the home side a 43-point lead going into the last quarter.
The last term mattered little, with both sides seeking to end without injury and the Swans belatedly compiling their best passages of play long after the result was settled.
Swans coach Paul Roos criticised his players' work rate so close to the season proper and downplayed the impact of playing man-on-man versus a zone.
"(The zone) is a very minute component, you could pick just about every single area, from the stoppages, the work from stoppages, their kick-ins versus our kick-ins, it really comes back to workrate," he said.
"If we're working hard, there's fewer kick-ins, and the turnovers as a result of not working hard [are] just lazy, so really [it’s] just the workrate."
Adelaide coach Neil Craig said his men were, with the exception of a last-term lapse, in fine shape.
"I thought we played some outstanding football, particularly for three quarters, and we saw a lot of the ball movement we saw tonight also against Hawthorn, so it was pleasing to see that again," Craig said.
"Sydney as we know, especially with that squad, are a pretty hardened footy side and been in reasonable form, we're all at different levels.
"But in general we're pleased with our pre-season, pleased with the work we've done before we started playing, pleased with the work we've put into our less experienced players and the last two games we've been really pleased with our playing performance."
Adelaide 4.1 8.6 13.11 15.13 (103)
Sydney Swans 2.2 3.5 7.6 11.9 (75)
GOALS
Adelaide: Hentschel 3, Tippett 3, Walker 3, Vince 2, Petrenko, Shirley, Mackay, Goodwin.
Sydney Swans: Hall 4, O'Keefe 2, McVeigh, Richards, Veszpremi, White, Barlow.
BEST
Adelaide: Goodwin, Vince, Johncock, Tippett, Edwards, Otten, Petrenko, Walker.
Sydney Swans: Hall, McVeigh, Kirk, O'Keefe.
Injuries
Adelaide: Nil.
Sydney Swans: Nil.
Umpires: S Ryan H Ryan C Hendrie
Official crowd: 7626 at AAMI Stadium.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
