Match Report: Swans sink Crows at Adelaide Oval

The Crows led by 23 points late in the second quarter of Saturday night’s match, and they overcame Joel Amartey’s first blitzkrieg to still lead by 16 points late in the third.

But Amartey’s heroics – finishing with nine goals – eventually proved too much to handle for the Crows as Sydney kicked the next 10 majors of the match to secure the 16.13 (109) to 10.7 (67) win.

The victory was Sydney’s ninth on the trot, and lifted them three wins clear on top of the ladder with a 12-1 record.

Errol Gulden was also huge for Sydney with 35 disposals and 10 clearances, while Brodie Grundy racked up 31 possessions, nine clearances and 49 hit-outs.

Adelaide made the most of its chances in the opening term, kicking four goals to two to take an 11-point lead into the first change.

It marked the fourth consecutive match Sydney had trailed at quarter-time, and the warning bells were ringing when a Brayden Cook volley put Adelaide ahead 45-22 with seven minutes remaining in the half.

Amartey had already kicked a goal from a strong mark earlier in the second term, but he was left frustrated time and again by Sydney’s poor entries, which often favoured Adelaide’s defenders.

When Sydney finally fixed up their flaws, Amartey cashed in with a three-goal burst in the final five minutes of the quarter.

The first of that flurry came via a set shot from a tight angle.

A contested mark with a little less than four minutes remaining set him up for another goal, and he ended the rampage with an acrobatic snap around his body.

The Crows kicked away again after the major break, and with six minutes to go in the third quarter, Sydney was still yet to kick a goal for the term.

That all changed in the blink of the eye as the Swans slammed through six unanswered goals to finish the quarter, including four to Amartey, to set up a comfortable ending in the fourth for the away side.