KUWARNA has broken through for its first win under new coach Ryan Davis, Ebony Marinoff starring in a hard-fought 17-point victory in Indigenous Round that has kept Waalitj Marawar winless three rounds into the season.

It was the fifth AFLW meeting between the sides, with the Crows booting their highest score of the season to maintain a perfect record against the Eagles.

CROWS V EAGLES Full match details and stats

The visitors trailed by 25 points at three-quarter time but fought desperately in the final term, going inside attacking 50 ten times to Kuwarna’s one to start the quarter.

But just one goal resulted from that dominance, as the home side defended grimly to improve to a 1-2 record and consign Daisy Pearce’s side to 0-3.

"It feels fantastic … I'm really pleased for the girls," Davis said.

"They worked really hard over the last couple of weeks, and got their just rewards today.

"We've seen really good moments and passages over the last couple of weeks, but to put it together for a good chunk today was really pleasing.

"I think that every one of our players had moments today where they really stood up in big, contested situations, big plays and really took their chances."

It was a contest of swinging momentum in the first half, with Kuwarna putting the visitors on the back foot only for the Eagles to hit back.

The visitors booted the last two goals of the opening term to slice the margin to two points at the first break, but that deficit quickly blew out as the Crows slammed through three in a row, including a second to Grace Egan.

Waalitj Marawar did well to stem the bleeding, with Sanne Bakker and Amy Franklin booting much-needed settling goals.

But the momentum soon swung the other way.

Caitlin Gould benefitted from a desperate lunging smother from Christina Leuzzi to convert from point-blank range, then Chloe Bown and Jemmika Douglas hit the scoreboard as the Crows reached their highest score of the season by half-time to lead by 27 points.

Ella Roberts was outstanding throughout, but she lifted her output again in the third quarter as the visitors won the territory battle but only managed one goal for their efforts to trail by 25 points heading into the final term.

Pearce bemoaned the costly defensive lapse in the second quarter, but backed the Eagles to dig themselves out of a hole at 0-3.

"I believe in this group, and the equation's still the same, you’ve got to win six or seven games to get yourselves into finals," Pearce said.

"So, there's no point kind of casting your mind too far ahead and thinking 'Maybe this one, that one', we just review this game really, really well.

"We got some good feedback today that the team defence stuff is an important thing to keep putting time into and make sure we get our week right and get after Melbourne."

Back-to-back breakthrough goals
Adelaide’s players had to do a little extra running in the second quarter when every player on the ground mobbed two teammates who’d just booted their first AFLW goals. Chloe Bown was first after she took a strong contested pack mark on the goal line, then it was Jemmika Douglas’ turn. Playing just her second AFLW game, the lone indigenous player on the ground did well to take possession then slotted a brilliant checkside goal on the run.

Grace in space
Grace Kelly played her first game of the season after recovering from a hamstring injury and she found herself in space on a couple of key occasions in the first half. Kelly looked set to open the scoring as she ran toward goal early in the first quarter only for a desperate Zoe Wakfer to execute a brilliant chase-down tackle. The Irish star did better in the second quarter, running to give Gould a handball option then converting a superb running goal on her left.

Up next
The Crows are back in action in Melbourne on Sunday against Hawthorn at the Kennedy Community Centre at 1:05pm AEST, while the Eagles return home to host Melbourne at Mineral Resources Park at 3:05pm local time on Sunday.

KUWARNA                  2.2       8.4       9.5       9.6 (60)
WAALITJ MARAWAR  2.0       4.1       5.4       6.7 (43)

GOALS
KUWARNA:  Egan 2, Newman, Marinoff, G.Kelly, N.Kelly, Bown, Douglas, Gould
WAALITJ MARAWAR: L.Wakfer, Painter, Lakay, Gibson, Franklin, Bakker

BEST 
KUWARNA:  Marinoff, Newman, Goodwin, J.Allan, Charlton, S.Allan 
WAALITJ MARAWAR: Roberts, Thomas, Lewis, Shannon, Gibson, Lakay

INJURIES
KUWARNA: Nil 
WAALITJ MARAWAR: Nil

Crowd: TBC at Unley Oval