IT BECAME a case of pick your superstar on Thursday night.

Patrick Dangerfield or Jeremy Cameron? Which generational talent did Geelong want to kick the ball to going forward? The rest of the Cats could raffle it off. They knew the result would be goals.

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Every time Geelong was challenged in its 19-point victory over Adelaide to open Gather Round, particularly late, it would be Dangerfield or Cameron who would inevitably produce the telling response.

Trailing at three-quarter time, it was Dangerfield's smother that Cameron swooped upon to bring the margin to within a kick. Cameron also nabbed the next one, snaring a critical lead for a Cats outfit desperate to silence the frenzied and vocal Adelaide Oval support.

But the match was still in the balance when Dangerfield seized upon his own pair of significant moments. He raced into an open goal to extend the Geelong advantage, then sniffed the footy at the fall of the ball just a few seconds later to put the scoreline beyond reasonable doubt.

It was job not just done, but done brilliantly. Dangerfield had four goals, Cameron had four goals, the Cats had four points. Their 18.11 (119) to 15.10 (100) win ensuring Adelaide's hopes of kickstarting Gather Round with a win, and claiming its first scalp of the season, went up in smoke.

Darcy Fogarty, who also kicked four goals, had threatened to do what Dangerfield and Cameron eventually did at the other end. Alongside three goals from Ben Keays, he had appeared as though he would spearhead a Crows statement when he helped the boisterous hosts into an early 30-point lead.

But it wasn't to be, with timely contributions from the likes of Bailey Smith (35 disposals, one goal) and Max Holmes (32 disposals, one goal) supporting the match-winning moments from Dangerfield and Cameron to get Geelong over the line.

In front of a full house, in perfect conditions, to kickstart the biggest weekend on the calendar, it was a contest that deserved an entertaining game. Luckily, as if often the case when the Crows are involved, that's exactly what was served up during an opening term where the goals flowed as free as any Shiraz in the Barossa this weekend.

Adelaide and Geelong traded the first six goals in a run capped by Taylor Walker's brilliant first and Dangerfield silencing his former home crowd with a steady set shot. But it needed one side to break open the contest, and that's what eventually arrived when the Crows finally added consecutive majors.

Keays' classy finish from deep inside the forward pocket had capped the Adelaide breakaway, with the club's reigning best and fairest beginning to have an increasing influence on the contest. Already with two to quarter time, he could have had a third if not for unselfishly handing off to Fogarty right after the break.

That, in turn, kickstarted Fogarty's night. He drilled the next after marking on the lead, missed another from deep inside the pocket, then found it once more and drilled through the resulting set shot in trademark fashion from the paint of the 50m arc as the Crows' advantage quickly shot to 30 points.

As that margin ballooned out to five goals, it was fitting that the man to get it there was Keays. Left alone inside-50 once again, he marked fortuitously from Jake Soligo's bobbling entry and sent through his third of the half.

Geelong needed to find the release valve and eventually located it through Tyson Stengle. He crafted a response via a beautiful kick to Dangerfield, then set up the next when he spiked the footy brilliantly for Shannon Neale to snap home. Suddenly, momentum had shifted.

Jack Bowes and Cameron chipped in with a couple more before half-time, Max Holmes and Brad Close added a couple more after half-time, and just like that the margin had shrunk to a solitary point.

Now, it was Adelaide that needed a response. But, instead, the Crows copped for five straight misses from five gettable shots as the pressure built. It ramped up yet another notch when Ollie Dempsey climbed high in the goal square, kicking a fifth straight Geelong goal to put the Cats in front for the first time in a long time.

But it was just that type of game, as Adelaide's kids struck the next blow. Zac Taylor, in his first involvement since being activated as the substitute, marked strongly and converted, before teenage sensation Sid Draper delivered a superb individual effort to put the Crows back in the ascendency.

Trailing by just eight points at three-quarter time, Geelong needed its big guns to find the spark. That they did. Dangerfield's smother on ex-teammate Rory Laird allowed Cameron to swoop in and score, before the Cats' goalkicking star soon made it two in a minute to get the scoreboard back in the favour of the visitors.

Dangerfield, not to be outdone, had the next himself. And the one after that. Now camped exclusively forward, the skipper's own quickfire double opened up his team's first double-digit lead for the match before Izak Rankine finally stemmed the hosts' bleeding to ensure a close finale.

But if it was up in the air, who else to settle it but Cameron? Marking strongly while running back with the float, Geelong's Coleman Medal king kicked his fourth to ensure a pin would be placed squarely in Adelaide's Gather Round bubble.

Will he? Won't he?
Adelaide spent all of Thursday saying Izak Rankine would be a legitimate game time decision, and so it proved. An hour before the bounce, Rankine finally emerged from the Crows' change rooms to test a calf knock he'd been battling all week. After in-depth discussions with the medical team on the field, the Crows opted to give it a shot and the star onballer was cleared. He was thrust right into the action, as well, starting in the opening centre bounce and finishing the game with 25 disposals and two goals in a fantastic display that proved his fitness. Amid the early drama, the news wasn't so good for Geelong. The club was forced into a fourth late change in four weeks when Tom Stewart (illness) was replaced in the selected side by Ted Clohesy.

Tex delivers Gather Round greeting
Taylor Walker ruined any Geelong hopes of keeping a rowdy home crowd quiet with the first goal of Gather Round weekend. Collecting a down-the-line kick from James Peatling on the bounce, 'Tex' faked out his opponent Mark Blicavs with a tricky sidestep, eased away from him with a burst of pace, gave him a fend-off for good measure to ensure some separation, then snapped through from deep inside the pocket on his left foot to seal the deal. It was vintage 'Tex', and a great way to begin the feast of football.

Dempsey call turns Crows heads hot
Adelaide has been asking its fair share of 'please explains' in recent weeks. It might put in another request on Monday morning, after Ollie Dempsey's controversial mark on Thursday night. It had appeared as though Lachie Sholl had snared an intercept grab on the boundary, when Dempsey soared in late and ripped the ball from his grasp. A decision was made to award Dempsey the mark, leading to a chorus of boos from an incredibly vocal Adelaide Oval crowd. Those boos were turned up a notch when Dempsey slotted the resulting shot, whittling a 17-point deficit to just 11 at a crucial juncture of the first half. It would prove a momentum-altering moment.

ADELAIDE     5.3     11.6    14.10    15.10 (100)
GEELONG      4.4     9.6      13.8      18.11 (119)

GOALS
Adelaide: Fogarty 4, Keays 3, Walker 2, Rankine 2, Curtin, Taylor, Draper, Thilthorpe
Geelong: Dangerfield 4, Cameron 4, Close 2, Dempsey 2, Guthrie, Henry, Neale, Bowes, Holmes, Smith

BEST
Adelaide: Keays, Fogarty, Peatling, Rankine, Crouch, Laird
Geelong: Dangerfield, Smith, Holmes, Cameron, Atkins, O'Sullivan

INJURIES
Adelaide: Nil
Geelong: Nil

LATE CHANGES
Adelaide: Nil
Geelong: Tom Stewart (illness), replaced in selected side by Ted Clohesy

SUBSTITUTES
Adelaide: Zac Taylor (replaced Lachlan Sholl in the third quarter)
Geelong: Ted Clohesy (replaced Oisin Mullin in the fourth quarter)

Crowd: 50,073 at the Adelaide Oval