One down, eight to go for Gather Round. It's a tough one to swallow for the Crows, who are rapidly recalibrating their season expectations. Demons fans, on the other hand, are on the road to something significant this year you feel.

We'll leave the blog here for tonight, but I will be back tomorrow for two — that's right, TWO — Friday games. The Lions and Kangaroos are first up, before Port Adelaide take on Essendon.

Hope to see you then!

No doubt internally the Crows will be talking about that Swans team that came back from 0-6 to make finals, but it honestly seems like a ridiculous long shot at this point. The Crows are fundamentally broken, look slow and unskilled compared to the league's best teams, and closer to a bottom four side than one in finals contention.

Their next four game:

• Carlton at Docklands (Uh oh)
• Essendon at Adelaide Oval (Seriously tricky)
• North Melbourne in Tasmania (Must-win, but really not easy)
• Showdown against Port Adelaide (Yikes)

The Demons have come to Adelaide and knocked off both local teams, beating Port Adelaide and Adelaide on the same ground inside a week.

Melbourne probably weren't quite at their best tonight, but they also intentionally played a style of game that shut down Adelaide's best assets and gave them the greatest chance to win. They kept it tight, kept it contested and let their quality and class shine.

For Adelaide, I'm not sure where they go from here. Next up is Carlton away, which the Crows will most certainly not be favourites in. Finals look a mile off, and probably impossible at this point for a team that was supposed to be on the up. Matthew Nicks will face questions, and looking at the 22 that ran out today I'm not sure there are obvious answers.

Christian Petracca was great for Melbourne, as were the key pair of Jake Lever and Steven May. Jake Soligo was impressive for Adelaide, but it's difficult to pick too many Crows beyond that.

Mark Keane took a fantastic intercept mark at half-forward, but he quickly then put his kick out on the full. The Demons have shut down in this quarter, but they're doing enough too keep the Crows at bay.

There was also a period of six minutes after his goal when Jordan Dawson couldn't get off the bench and back onto the field. A costly spell with Adelaide's captain and best player not in the action.

Two minutes to play, and Adelaide might have missed the moment now.

The first came when he inexplicably spoiled the ball away from a leading Taylor Walker, the second when he blazed away from 60 metres out for a behind instead of setting up a teammate.

The Crows simply must make good decision from here on out, and those were a couple of bad ones from Josh Rachele.

5:30 to play.

Jake Lever wasn't happy with the free kick, but wisely bit his tongue. There was just the tiniest hold on Rachele in the marking contest, but enough for the umpire to blow the whistle and open the door for the Crows.

Adelaide are having a dip. It's still not pretty, but it's got the margin back to just 15 points.

The captain steps up! He outbodied Trent Rivers just outside the goalsquare, and once the umpire ticked off the mark you could put the goal in the books.

Finally a goal in this final quarter. There's 10:20 on the clock, and Melbourne's lead is 22 points.

There's only 13:30 left on the clock, and the Crows haven't fired a shot in the last term. It's not out of reach yet, but it's only a few minutes or one Melbourne goal away from it.

Adelaide's priority for the rest of this quarter needs to be getting Rankine the ball as often as possible. His first touch of the term saw him break a tackle and lace out Taylor Walker, who promptly missed his shot. His second action was a long-range shot that was a Steven May fingernail away from going through.

Priority number two needs to be actually taking some of their chances.

Adelaide made a move in that quarter to try to open the game up, to take some risks and be more expansive in their attack. It worked to a certain extent, but also left the back door open for Melbourne to walk on through.

Bayley Fritsch was the Demons' star in that quarter with three goals, but you could argue that the Adelaide midfield has gotten the better of Melbourne tonight. The trouble has been converting that into any sort of competitive score, and we've been talking about those problems all night.

Matthew Nicks needs to pull something out — something great enough to win this quarter by five goals — or else it's an 0-4 start and disaster for Adelaide.

Goodness me, does he kick the footy well. From the corner of the arc and the boundary line, that ball has just erupted off Fogarty's right boot.

Never looked like missing. Crows hanging in there.

Blake Howes set shot fell short and towards a massive pack of players, but van Rooyen was in the box seat. He held his position, stuck up a hand and directed the ball back down into his lap for a cracking contested mark.

The shot for goal was never in doubt. Melbourne lead by 31 with five minutes to play in the third.

Best Crows passage of play for the night. The Demons looked like they raffling off their 10th goal of the night, but from the moment Windsor was run down lining up a shot the Crows went to work.

Quick handballs, an aggressive inboard kick from Dawson and eventually Walker out the back. He took the mark, gave off the handball and got this crowd into the game at last.

It's the same old story for Adelaide. Another forward entry burned by a terrible turnover, and they're hurt the other way.

Fritsch marked on centre wing and Parnell knocked the ball out of his hands, coughing up another 50m penalty and giving Fritsch the chance to kick his third of the term.

I'm still trying to work out he took the contested mark about 60 from goal. But while that was being pondered, he landed on his feet, spun towards goal, surveyed a completely open 50 and bounced it through.

The Crows have clearly changed their attacking plans in this quarter and are having a real go, but the Demons just have class in front of goal that Adelaide can't match right now.

Some good work off the ball blocked Steven May and allowed Taylor Walker a run and jump at the footy, after a period of slow and patient ball movement by Adelaide.

Tex kicks the goal and Adelaide pull it back to a 19-point game.

And very early in the third quarter, it's already getting tough for Adelaide.

Mitch Hinge wanted to try to move the ball with purpose through the middle of the ground, but the flip side to that is what happens when you turn it over. Clayton Oliver pinched it, quickly went long to Fritsch and let him do the rest.

Sixteen disposals, four clearances and a goal already for Petracca, who has provided the quality needed in a game like this.

Jake Soligo is leading the way with 16 touches for Adelaide, and I've been impressed with his game. He's one of the few Crows midfielders with a turn of pace and a bit of creativity, and it stands out.

Adelaide would have been happy enough to take a slender deficit into the break, but those two late goals are killers. They both came from rare occasions in which Melbourne have managed to get some space off half-back, punishing the Crows both times.

The Crows are still struggling to score. There's a school of thought that when playing Adelaide, all you need to do is make it ugly and they can't beat you. That might be playing out again today.

Melbourne are the classier team and will be happy to grind this one out all night. Adelaide will need to find some creativity and spark going forward to capitalise on the decent work they're doing elsewhere on the ground.