Port Adelaide have produced one of the upsets of the season, strangling their cross-town rivals with a display of exemplary pressure.
Acting captain and talk of the town Zak Butters was awarded best on ground honours for his role in the defining victory of Josh Carr's coaching tenure thus far, as the Power ran out 26-point victors over a Crows side who were eyeing a the top four rungs of the ladder - a position victory would have gifted them.
Amid his impending free agency decision, Butters trashed reports circulated pre-game by the ABC's Aaron Bryans that he had told teammates he has made up his mind and would be headed home to Victoria, in the moments immediately following the famous victory.
"First of all, I don't know Aaron," Butters said.
"But I'd love to know where he gets his stuff from.
"But yeah, that hasn't happened. So there you go, Aaron."
Butters' coach Josh Carr, a man who featured in plenty of iterations of the showpiece fixture as a player, admitted that external narratives (such as those circulated by former teammate Kane Cornes) certainly fuelled his under-manned and written-off charges.
"I'd be lying if I said that the external noise didn't have an influence on your thought process, and that's me personally, and I have no doubt the players at the same time," Carr said.
"I think as a footy club, you can never underestimate us.
"We set out with a clear focus, but also about what Showdowns mean to us as a footy club.
"And when I'm talking about us, I'm talking about everyone, I'm talking about our supporters, and everyone involved.
"We know what it means, and we spoke about that, we spoke about that as a group, and we're not living in the past, we're respecting what our history is, and we understand how important our jumper is."
That jumper is one that Butters' could potentially be persuaded to keep representing, with wins like Saturday night's sure to make the decision to leave more difficult. There's a clear game plan, a defensive identity, and a brotherhood brewing at Port Adelaide.
Butters and colleague Jason Horne-Francis had a stranglehold on clearances in the match, combining for 23 - a number greater than the entire Crows' lineup managed, and more than half of their own team's total of 42.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks conceded the pair 'punched his side in the mouth', when speaking, post-match.
"We had a plan in the first half, which we were forced to change at half-time," Nicks said.
"Zak's a super player, he has tags weekly, he learns how to deal with that.
"He was outstanding for the entire game, in the first half with attention and in the second half where we went more of a team style.
"He's obviously dominated the game, so he was too good for us.
"When you have Zak doing what he's doing, and Jason punching us in the mouth in there as well, and that's probably where we look at a part of it and say, 'Well, credit where it's due, they were more powerful in there'."
The Crows band of damaging hybrid midfield-forwards was quelled, unable to impact the contest. Josh Rachele, Izak Rankine and Jordan Dawson were well below their best, and will need outings like Saturday night's to stay the exception rather than the rule if they are to helm their resurgent side to a double chance, come September.
Third fiddle forward Darcy Fogarty took his star turn, booting five majors in the absence of scoreboard impact from the more heralded Taylor Walker and Riley Thilthorpe.
