Adelaide Crows make Woodville-West Torrens earn hard-fought win at Woodville Oval.

THE EAGLES looked set to win in a canter when Lachlan McGregor put it 48 points up just after halftime - but an hour later they found themselves in a hell of a scrap.

WOODVILLE-WEST Torrens looked set to win in a canter when Lachlan McGregor put it 48 points up 30 seconds after halftime - but an hour later they found themselves in a hell of a scrap at Woodville.

Adelaide kicked eight of the next nine goals and closed to within 10 points before Angus Rowntree finally kicked a sealer early in time-on of the final term on Saturday.

To borrow an old cliché, this was very much a game of two halves.

The Eagles were a treat to watch in the opening half with their clearance work, clean hands around the contest and slick ball movement as they set up their eighth straight win.

They booted seven goals in the opening term and their ability to move the ball off halfback was “elite” in the words of coach Michael Godden.

“I thought our first half was probably as good a footy as I’ve seen from us,’’ Godden said.

“We were hunting the ball, our pressure was good and the way we moved the ball was great.”

The Eagles led by 42 points at the long break and had a host of good players.

But everything changed after McGregor’s goal.

Eagles midfielder James Boyd had been prominent in the opening half but injured an adductor and the Crows started winning clearances through Jarryd Lyons and Rory Atkins.

“We just stopped getting our hands on the footy and sometimes it’s that simple against the AFL teams,’’ Godden said.

“We were disappointing after halftime but credit to them.”

Adelaide trailed disposals by 51 at halftime but almost squared the stat by fulltime and it was reflected on the scoreboard.

Ricky Henderson led an impressive halfback line and when Luke Lowden kicked the Crows’ sixth major without reply 19 minutes into the final term they briefly had a sniff of victory, but would fall short.

“I thought the second half was a good as we’ve played,’’ Younie said.

“It could have been a tough day at the office and it was heading that way at halftime but it was character building for the young kids to be able to fight back out of that, albeit we didn’t get the result we wanted.”