ADELAIDE farewelled its home fans ahead of a stint on the road after booking its place in a massive semi-final against Melbourne. The Crows produced a “pretty complete” performance during their win over first-time finalists St Kilda at Norwood Oval, coming away with an 8.12 (60) to 2.4 (16) victory.

“We had a little patch in the third where we sort of lost our pressure just for a moment and a couple of CB [centre bounce] goals, but other than that it was pretty complete,” Crows coach Matthew Clarke said post-game. “Obviously really pleasing for that to come at this end of the year.”

Unlike the Saints, Adelaide has a stack of finals hardened players, helped by the fact the Crows have a record three flags to their name. Clarke said it definitely aided in preparing for a do-or-die contest.

“We’ve got some players who have been in this situation before so that obviously helps in terms of the preparation and the lead-in, but probably the main thing at the moment is we’ve got a healthy list,” he said.

“We’ve got 30 to pick from this week, so that’s pretty unique to get to that position as you’re going into finals, and so all credit to our medical team, to our high-performance team. “All year we’ve built the model to try and peak at this backend of the season, and it’s only one week, but from a health of list point of view, it certainly looks like we’re in good shape.”

Adelaide has made a habit of turning up when the pressure lifts, and the Crows looked that class above the young Saints, only conceding two third quarter goals and otherwise keeping the Saints to just one behind for the remaining three quarters compared to their 6.11 in that time.

“Obviously it was a really strong performance,” Clarke said. “Last week I was equally impressed with the way we went about it. It was a bit more of a grind last week. “All year we’ve felt as though our best footy was going to be around the mark, but yet our consistency’s been the issue. “We’re in a finals series and we’ve knocked the first one over so we’re pretty happy.”

While the Crows enjoyed the elimination final win, Clarke knows his team will now spend the remainder of the finals series out east, with Melbourne and North Melbourne the next two scheduled opponents.

“Look ultimately we love playing here to be in front of our fans,” Clarke said. “That’s a massive bonus out of the day. “But in terms of the venues that we’ll play over the next coming weeks, couldn’t care less to be honest.”

Before Adelaide can even think about tackling the unbeaten, reigning premier Roos, the Crows first have to deal with a Melbourne side smarting off a defeat to Brisbane in the qualifying final. While the Dees went down in that clash, Clarke said it would be a really tough contest, and a “great challenge” for his team.

“They’ve had a great season and last year they had a lot of injuries and they blooded a lot of youngsters who have come on really, really well,” he said. “They deserve to be top four and clearly they’re going to use the double chance, but if you look at their form across the year, it’s been really, really strong. “It’s going to be a great challenge and we’ll see if we’re up for it.”

Adelaide takes on Melbourne at Ikon Park on Saturday from 1:05pm, with the winner to take on North Melbourne in the preliminary final a week later.