Adelaide continue to rapidly trim the gap between intoxicating potential and eye-catching performance, announcing themselves as a genuine top-eight prospect while exposing Carlton as a premiership pretender with a 56-point drubbing.
The best Crows team since 2017 all but put the first Gather Round fixture to bed with a first-quarter goal avalanche, putting eight six-pointers through from eight individual goalscorers to send the previously undefeated Blues thudding back to earth with an almighty thud, 18.10 (118) to 9.8 (62).
Carlton suffered a body blow 10 minutes before the opening bounce when key defender Mitch McGovern withdrew after suffering calf tightness during warm-ups.
Their big man stocks copped another jolt when ruckman Marc Pittonet suffered a nasty gashed eye late in the first quarter, forcing his second-quarter substitution.