TO WITNESS Melbourne’s thrilling three-point win over the Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval last year was a rare highlight for the red and blue faithful in recent years.

Breaking the South Australian hoodoo was a massive hurdle, remembering Melbourne hadn’t won in Adelaide since 2001.

Achieving back-to-back victories over the Crows in Adelaide – this time around – would’ve been a first for the Demons.

But alas, it wasn’t to be.

Instead, Melbourne continued a competitive trend at Adelaide Oval, rather than the poor record it possessed at AAMI Stadium, where it had easily been accounted for on nearly every occasion since its three-point win over Adelaide in round two, 2001.

Melbourne’s fourth encounter at Adelaide Oval might have been its greatest loss – a 25-point margin – but it had a genuine crack, as coach Paul Roos pointed out. (For the record, Melbourne has one win and three losses at the venue by an average of 12 points.)

“I was really proud of the guys,” he said.

“The difference in the end of the game was that they’re (Adelaide) bigger bodies and they had a few more inside 50s. I felt we gave a really good account of ourselves … in all but 10 minutes.

“We had two bad quarters last week, but the three games we have played have been pretty good, but we’ve got to keep educating [the players].”

Aside from some inaccurate kicking in front of goal – Melbourne kicked five behinds from set shots – it was a far better showing than last round’s second half fade-out against GWS.

In the end, Melbourne had the same number of scoring shots to Adelaide – 20 each – but 7.13 to the Crows’ 12.8 was the difference.

And after such a strong start, where the Demons booted the opening three goals, you could have been forgiven for thinking that it was 2014 all over again against the Crows at Adelaide Oval.

Melbourne led by 23 points early in the second quarter against the Crows in 2014 and took a 21-point advantage in the first term this time around.

The opportunity to bridge the margin even closer was frustrating for Roos though. And he was adamant that goalkicking remained the most underrated part of the game. 

“We talk about contested possession, uncontested possession and tackles, but goalkicking percentage is massive,” he said.

“That’s the difference, apart from the bigger bodies and conditioning, but I was proud of our guys.”

And so he should have been.

The Crows have so far proven to be an impressive outfit in 2015 with wins over last year’s preliminary finalist North Melbourne, Collingwood (currently sixth on the ladder) and now Melbourne.

It’s only early, but the top of the table Adelaide appears to be a big improver under new coach Phil Walsh – remembering it was just three years ago when they finished second on the ladder after the home and away season, and made a preliminary final.

Roos said the Crows’ bigger bodies also came to the fore when the game was on the line. And this was backed up with the fact Adelaide averaged more games experienced and fielded a more mature team than Melbourne. 

“We were beaten by a really good team and we just missed some easy goals that didn’t give us a chance in the end to square up the contest,” Roos said.

“But those little drop off times for two or three minutes, when players drop off the contest [hurt] when you’re playing against a team that nearly made a Grand Final in 2012, so it’s not a surprise to me that they’re a good footy team.

“[But] we’ve certainly improved significantly.”

There is no doubt about that. And in the City of Churches that has certainly been a theme in recent times.