BRISBANE livewire Charlie Cameron has torched his former club Adelaide with four goals in a 36-point away victory for the Lions. 

Brisbane came from 15 points down in the second quarter to overpower the Crows, winning 16.6 (102) to 9.12 (66) at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.

Cameron, Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale (35 disposals, one goal, seven clearances) and Zac Bailey (three goals, 19 touches) were instrumental as the Lions took top spot on the ladder ahead of Sunday's games.

CROWS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats 

Captain Dayne Zorko (26 possessions, two goals), Hugh McCluggage (22 disposals), Jarryd Lyons (24, eight clearances) and Daniel Rich (26) were other standouts in the Lions' eighth win from nine matches this season.

Adelaide forward Shane McAdam booted three goals and Ned McHenry kicked two.

Acting Crows captain Ben Keays (27 disposals, 10 clearances), Jordan Dawson (24 touches), Jackson Hately (27, one goal) and Rory Laird (32 possessions, 10 tackles) battled gamely, but Adelaide remains in the mire in 14th spot with three wins after being flattened by a powerful Brisbane surge.

The Lions slipped 15 points down when McAdam slotted his third goal in the 23rd minute of the second stanza.

But Brisbane emphatically responded to the challenge, kicking the next eight goals of the game and 11 of the next dozen.

"Our second half was fantastic, we controlled the ball a lot better," Brisbane coach Chris Fagan said.

"We are a bit more of a mature group and they understand what is happening in the game and they can correct it ... it's a pleasing sign."

After Adelaide's Taylor Walker scored the game's first major, the Lions went on a run of four consecutive goals, including two from ex-Crow Cameron.

Brisbane held a 5.2 to 3.3 quarter-time lead before the tide turned Adelaide's way in the second term.

The Crows kicked four unanswered goals - two each to McHenry and McAdam - to take a 15-point lead.

Adelaide led by three points at half-time, but were overwhelmed by a Brisbane blitz in the third quarter.

In a barnstorming 25 minutes, the Lions booted six goals to none with Cameron, who left the Crows after the 2017 season, adding two more and missing another set shot.

Brisbane's burst created a 28-point buffer at three quarter-time and the Lions then cruised to victory in a tame last term by adding three goals to one against the flagging Adelaide, which mustered just two majors in the entire second half.

"I loved our first half, that was some of the best footy we have played,"Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said.

"But it showed where we're at, at the moment, is not being able to put it together for four quarters."

Lions' small forwards stand tall
Brisbane's key forward stocks have taken a belting this season, but the dominance of their small forwards has more than made up for the absent big men. Charlie Cameron, Zac Bailey and Lincoln McCarthy all entered Saturday's clash with double-figure goal tallies for the season and Cam Rayner joined them within the first 10 minutes of play. In fact, all four had goaled before quarter-time and finished with nine between them for the night. There's no doubt Chris Fagan would love to have Joe Daniher and Dan McStay back on deck, but the scoring load is in good - if small - hands in the meantime.

It ain't over till it's over the line, and even then it ain't over
The football world has worked hard to send love the umpires' way this season and there was plenty of Crows fans adoring the work of one of the boundary officials at Adelaide Oval. The Lions defence worked the ball into the left forward pocket early in the second quarter, happy to see it go over the boundary line so they could reset for the next play, but the next play came quicker than expected. Ned McHenry was the only one aware the umpire's whistle hadn't blown, so he swooped with a beautiful one-hand pick up and snapped around the corner to bring the Crows within a kick. Brisbane's backmen, and Chris Fagan on the bench, were left pointing where the ball had once been, dumbfounded that it was now sitting 10 rows back behind the goals.

Second chance ruckman will hope for a third
The omission of Adelaide ruckman Reilly O'Brien took many by surprise this week, but close observers of the club would agree the big Crow has been well below his best. The selection decision gave Kieran Strachan his chance to stake a claim for the No.1 ruck spot in the same manner O'Brien did over his then-incumbent predecessor Sam Jacobs. Unfortunately for Strachan it wasn't the best performance of his three-year, five-game career, managing just six disposals and 21 hitouts, while his direct opponent Oscar McInerney was one of the Lions' best. After the Crows made seven changes for Saturday's game, Strachan won't be the only player hoping the lineup is a bit more settled next week.

ADELAIDE     3.3    7.6     8.8     9.12 (66)
BRISBANE    5.2    7.3    13.6    16.6 (102)

GOALS
Adelaide: McAdam 3, McHenry 2, Hately, Rachele, Rowe, Walker
Brisbane: Cameron 4, Bailey 3, Zorko 2, J.Berry, Coleman, Lyons, McCarthy, McInerney, Neale, Rayner, 

BEST
Adelaide: Laird, Dawson, Keays, Hately, Doedee
Brisbane: Zorko, Cameron, Neale, Bailey, McInerney, Rich, Lyons

INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
Brisbane: Nil

MEDICAL SUBS
Adelaide: Luke Pedlar, unused
Brisbane: Thomas Berry, unused