A rampant Adelaide has delivered a warning to the top four that there's a fifth team with genuine designs on the 2009 premiership with a 72-point finals-eve thumping of Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

With home ground advantage in the first week of the finals the prize for the winner, both teams had everything to play for but the Crows outcoached, outran, outmuscled and comprehensively outscored their opponents 27.14 (176) - the club's best score for the season by a whopping 46 points - to 16.8 (104).

The Blues started brightly and had five goals on the board to Adelaide's one at the 17-minute mark of the opening term but could manage just six more to the Crows' 19 up to three-quarter time by which time the result was in the bag.

Adelaide will go into next week's elimination final against a potentially depleted Essendon at AAMI Stadium brimming with confidence while the Blues are locked-in to play Brisbane who can snatch home advantage with a win in Sydney on Saturday night.

Brendan Fevola wavered between petulance and brilliance to finish with five goals for the Blues for a season's tally of 86 and, barring a PB from Jonathan Brown at the SCG, his second Coleman Medal.

Fevola, however, may come under video scrutiny for a love tap on the back of Scott Stevens' head in second quarter.

Jason Porplyzia, Kurt Tippett and Chris Knights shared the goalscoring honours for the Crows, who had 13 different contributors, with four apiece.

Best-afield Bernie Vince scored three to add to his team-high 34 possessions while Bryce Gibbs gathered a match-high 37 touches for the Blues.

And to make a memorable performance truly unforgettable for the 'Pride of South Australia', Brett Burton showed there's still spring in his 31-year-old legs by staking his claim for mark of the year with a classic hanger on Tippett's shoulders in the third term.

The Blues seized the early advantage with a seven-goal opening quarter and their dead-eye finishing honoured the excellent work upfield of the likes of Chris Yarran whose sizzling chase and tackle on Graham Johncock set up Fevola for his first.

But while the hosts had their noses in front throughout the term - at one stage it was 5.0 to 1.2 - they couldn't shake the Crows who replied with six of their own to six different contributors, the best of them a ball-burster on the overlap from skipper Simon Goodwin.

A shudder went through the Carlton bench on the stroke of quarter-time when Nick Stevens - the Blues' best early ball-winner and only multiple first-term goalscorer - fell into Chris Judd's path and was collected in the face by his skipper's knee.

Stevens was assisted from the field in a bad way but fears that he may have reinjured the vertebra in his neck that were surgically fused two years ago were allayed when he returned to the field midway through the second term.

By that time, however, the Blues had lost their intensity and the lead to the Crows for whom a four-goal burst to Porplyzia, Dangerfield, Tippett and Knights was decisive.

Errors and turnovers began to insinuate their way into Carlton's game and two of them deep in defence gifted a pair of telling quickfire goals to Bernie Vince that enabled the visitors to open up a 20-point half-time lead.

The break failed to halt the Crows' momentum as they piled on another seven third-term goals to Carlton's two before easing to the line under a tight hold perhaps with next week in mind.

CARLTON: 7.2, 10.5, 12.6, 16.8 (104)
ADELAIDE: 6.3, 13.7, 20.11, 27.14 (176)

GOALS: Carlton: Fevola 5, Stevens 2, Walker, Hampson, Joseph, O'hAilpin, Gibbs, Simpson, Yarran, Murphy, Carrazzo
Adelaide: Porplyzia 4, Tippett, 4 Knights 4, Vince 3, Dangerfield 2, Hentschel 2, Burton 2, Goodwin, McLeod, Mackay, Symes, Sellar, Thompson
BEST: Carlton: Gibbs, Fevola, Kreuzer, Stevens
Adelaide: Vince, Symes, Goodwin, Porplyzia, Tippett, Knights, Thompson, McLeod
INJURIES: Carlton: Nil
Adelaide: van Berlo (back), Mackay (ankle)
REPORTS: Nil
CHANGES: Nil
UMPIRES: McBurney, Meredith, Vozzo
CROWD: 42,356 at Etihad Stadium