ADELAIDE has kicked off its premiership push in style with a 30-point defeat over arch-rivals Port Adelaide at Norwood Oval on Saturday afternoon.

The Crows kicked six consecutive goals after half-time to run away with the convincing 8.10 (58) to 4.4 (28) victory.

Niamh Kelly (28 disposals, six clearances, one goal) and Ebony Marinoff (31, seven, one) were outstanding for Adelaide, with prolific ball-winner Anne Hatchard (29 touches) also prominent.

Crow Yvonne Bonner and Port Adelaide's Ashleigh Saint were the game's only multiple goal kickers with two each.

The Power booted three unanswered goals in the second quarter and looked capable of causing an upset when they led by three points at the main break.

00:38

But the Crows finished full of running and proved far too strong when the game was there to be won.

Adelaide belted the Power 63-3 in their only previous meeting last year and looked on track for another big win over its cross-town rival early.

Irish pair Kelly and Bonner kicked the only two goals of the first term, putting Adelaide up 2.3 to 0.0 at quarter-time.

05:49

But Gemma Houghton put Port on the board in the second term and two goals from Saint gave the underdogs a narrow advantage at half-time.

The Crows kicked 3.3 to 0.1 in the third quarter and pulled 36 points clear in the last before Ewings' long bomb from almost 50m found the target in the dying stages.

Port Adelaide senior coach Lauren Arnell was pleased to see improvement, however conceded the side was still feeling disappointed with the result.

"(We saw) significant improvement from last year but still obviously disappointed. Certainly by half time, we played some pretty good footy, especially that second quarter, and I think that third quarter let us down. Probably just lost a little bit of shape around the contest, allowed their mids to spit forward and be really aggressive and we ended up chasing our tail a little bit," said Arnell. 

04:32

"I think most teams in men's and women's comps want to play front half footy, it's how you execute that, and it was pleasing to see that we were able to do that for maybe two and a half quarters of the game.

"Matilda Scholz's debut was promising and in true Matilda style, she's come off with a really nice shiner. I thought her work around the ground was pretty good for an 18-year-old kid. Jazzy Stewart showed a fair bit on-ball, Janelle Cuthbertson in our back half is going to show the more she spends time with this group, the more she's that general in our back half. Ash (Saint), she kicked two and had some pretty good presence up forward. And our captain was pretty significant today as well so there's a lot of positives. 

"(Abbey Dowrick's) work-rate both ways has been significant. Obviously she's been a player that can win a lot of contested ball and drive the ball forward and there were patches there where she really led the way in how she defended the ground and worked that bit harder with the added bit of fitness.

"Certainly looking forward to next week against the lions being one of those top tier teams and seeing how much longer in the game we can do it for and take it to them for four quarters."

ADELAIDE               2.3     2.6     5.9    8.10 (58)
PORT ADELAIDE    0.0     3.3     3.4    4.4 (28)

GOALS
Adelaide: Bonner 2, Charlton, Gould, Jones, Kelly, Marinoff, Martin
Port Adelaide: Saint 2, Ewings, Houghton

BEST
Adelaide: Marinoff, Hatchard, Kelly, Charlton, Randall
Port Adelaide: Phillips, Houghton, Dowrick, Mules, Saint

INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
Port Adelaide: Nil

Crowd: 8,722 at Norwood Oval