OF ALL people, not even Guy Sebastian could throw the Crows.

In a Thursday night blockbuster against an unbeaten Carlton to begin the inaugural Gather Round, Adelaide knew the lights would be brighter than ever before. But the talented, young Crows showed a maturity that suggests they have arrived.

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Such was the occasion and the build-up to this particular round, even the former Australian Idol winner in Sebastian rocked up to the Adelaide rooms before the game. For coach Matthew Nicks, it highlighted the level of attention that was being placed on this particular occasion.

But while Nicks conceded afterwards that he might have wilted in the presence of one of his favourite musicians, his impressive group of Adelaide players didn't. Instead, the Crows kicked eight of the first nine goals against the Blues to storm into a commanding early lead that set the foundations for their 56-point win.

"It's the occasion," a beaming Nicks said afterwards.

"It's Thursday night, it's Gather Round, which we've never seen before, I've never seen so many people … we had Guy Sebastian in the rooms. Even I lost my composure for five or 10 minutes. There were photos and autographs. I do love him.

"But our players just remained focused and smiled their way through it. We had a stage on the oval (before the game). A lot of our guys have never played a game with a stage on the oval. Some have, but it's pretty rare.

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"We're walking around in pre-game and the question you have as a coaching group, you just don't know what sort of energy you can burn in the lead-in to a game like this. But that adds to the win, the fact that our guys were able to come out like they did. They hadn't burnt any energy, they were ready."

Adelaide was scintillating throughout a brutal opening term. The Crows had 67 more disposals than the Blues, eight more clearances, 21 more contested possessions and had taken 18 more marks. That helped create a 38-point buffer by the game's first interval.

"I'm proud, impressed, proud more than anything," Nicks said.

"We stuck tight, had good connection, and it came together on a big stage. The last time we played on a big stage, we learnt a fairly important lesson and I thought we responded really well tonight.

"There's not much bigger than what we went up against. Carlton is a fantastic side, Thursday night footy with every single football person in the state. There was a fair bit going on. I thought our group handled it so maturely, the way they balanced their intensity with their composure.

"I thought, right across the board tonight, we showed every facet. We fought early, the contest was huge for us, and then we knew what would come – because Carlton is a great footy side – we knew they'd come hard and we just weathered the storm and battled and fought and did everything we possibly could to not let them get back into it."

It proved a dirty night for Carlton, which lost its first game of the season after a disappointing start and left the Adelaide Oval with a number of injury concerns to a host of important players.

Intercept defender Mitch McGovern was withdrawn just minutes before the opening bounce after suffering calf soreness in the warm-up, ruckman Marc Pittonet was substituted out of the game after enduring blurred vision as a result of a laceration, while All-Australian half-back Adam Saad dealt with hamstring tightness throughout.

The blows to key personnel added to a dismal opening term for the Blues, who found themselves 38 points down by the first break and couldn't make a dent in the deficit during the remainder of the contest.

"We were heavily beaten around the ball," coach Michael Voss said.

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"When you lose that battle, you lose important territory on the field. We weren't able to turn the tap off in terms of their efficiency inside 50. They've had 20 looks at it and they're scoring 55 per cent of the time. That makes it hard going.

"You can have quarters where that can happen, but you can generally hold on a little bit better than that. We weren't able to do that, which put us under pressure. There was a response with the playing group and I'm pleased that they stuck that out for two-and-a-half quarters. I felt like it was really evenly balanced throughout the rest of the night.

"We just had to have a throw at the stumps at the end, to see what impact we could have on the scoreboard. Clearly, that last little bit went against us. But we had to have a go at it to see if we could close and we couldn't.

"But when the whips are cracking, you've got to be there at the start and we just weren't."

Voss lamented the fact Adelaide scored from 11 of its 20 inside 50 entries throughout a barnstorming opening quarter, saying the blame could be pointed towards a combination of his midfield being beaten out of the centre and his defenders losing pivotal one-on-one contests.

"There were some contests that we could've done better," Voss said.

"We had position on the field, so it wasn't that. We had pressure on the ball at different times. But you've got to also take a picture across the whole night and we obviously weren't able to either get enough pressure on the ball early, or we weren't able to win enough critical contests at the same time.

"Centre-square bounce, that was another thing. We competed around the ground, but centre-square bounce was problematic for us across the whole night. Every time we felt we were in that position to strike again, it would go against us. They had eight shots on goal from centre-square bounce. That makes it hard going."