Adelaide v Port Adelaide Rd 20

Saturday, July 26 – 8.10 PM AEST – Venue: Adelaide Oval

Adelaide have everything to play for as they try to secure a top 4 finish and possibly top 2 to give them a home final to start proceedings. Port will bring their rivalry pressure and not make it easy at all for the Crows.

Connor Rozee will return for Port from a hand injury and Willie Rioli and Jeremy Finlayson may return after playing well in the SANFL last week.  

Adelaide kept the Suns goalless last week and will need to ensure they bring that intensity against Port. Their forward line of Riley Thilthorpe, Darcy Fogarty and Taylor Walker as well as Ben Keays and Isaac Rankine will be too strong for the Port defence and will get plenty of looks via Alex Neal-Bullen, Jake Soligo and the veteran Rory Laird, who keep racking up possessions.  

If Adelaide can get the crowd involved early, they should win with their potent forward line. 

Adelaide by 39 points

There’s something electrifying about a Showdown, and Round 20’s clash between Adelaide and Port Adelaide was no exception. As a local footy fan, I could feel the buzz around town building days before. It wasn’t just another fixture it was the kind of contest you circle well in advance on your calendar.

When the final siren blew, Adelaide had stamped their authority 133-35, a whopping 98-point victory at Adelaide Oval wrenched the hearts of Power supporters. They came out firing from the get-go leading by 5 points after Q1, then extending that cushion steadily to an emphatic finish. That margin tells the story of two teams on opposite trajectories.

Adelaide’s form leading into the showdown was electric they were riding a four-game winning streak. In Round 19, they dismantled a finals-bound Gold Coast side by 61 points, holding them scoreless for an entire half. That kind of pressure and consistency made them irresistible and ominous in equal measure.

Contrastingly, Port Adelaide had struggled to find rhythm with inconsistency plaguing their season and a heavy loss to Hawthorn in R19 adding to the woes. A fragile confidence was all they could salvage heading into the derby.

When crafting AFL Prediction or sharing AFL Betting Tips, context matters: Adelaide were red-hot, clinical at home, and brimming with form. Port, meanwhile, needed a serious lift to even make a contest of it. In hindsight, expecting such an expansive margin wasn’t far-fetched.

So, a down-to-earth AFL Tip for your readers? Lean into formlines. A team on a roll at home, showing dominance in recent matches, often continues that momentum especially against inconsistent opponents. Adelaide ticked all those boxes; Port simply didn’t.

With an atmosphere electric and Adelaide rising, the Showdown played out exactly as form and momentum suggested. No fancy jargon—just the raw energy of the game, the build-up, and what form suggests for AFL Betting Tips in matches like these.

Use form. Use context. You don’t need glamour—just real insight. That’s the heartbeat of every solid AFL Prediction.