Adelaide has secured a remarkable come-from-behind win over St Kilda in Cairns, thanks to a miraculous Riley Thilthorpe goal in the dying minutes of the game.

With his team trailing by a point and the clock winding down, Thilthorpe took possession of the ball with his back to the Crows' goal, 15m out, kicking a goal over his head to put his side up with just one minute remaining on the clock.

It completed a truly incredible comeback in which the Crows had trailed by 36 points in wet conditions but somehow escaped with a 9.12 (66) to 8.12 (60) victory.

SAINTS MATCH CENTRE: View all news, stats and videos from Round 13

St Kilda had dominated the first two-and-a-half quarters of the game, but Adelaide kicked the final seven goals of the match – including all three in the last quarter – to steal the win.

Thilthorpe kicked three for the night to ultimately have a big influence, while Rory Laird eventually shook the attention of Luke Dunstan to gather 21 of his 33 disposals after half-time.

St Kilda totally blanketed Adelaide in the first quarter, keeping the Crows scoreless and running out to a 27-point lead.

The Saints' defence was like a brick wall, chopping off everything that made its way to half-back, led by Tom Highmore and Dougal Howard who took intercept marks at will.

Mason Wood kicked a couple of goals with his trusty left-foot snap, Max King put any set-shot goalkicking nerves aside to slot his first gettable look from 45m, and Jack Sinclair iced a great opening term with a goal after the siren.

Adelaide finally hit the scoreboard at the 16-minute mark of the quarter when Shane McAdam kicked a behind. He kicked the Crows' first goal minutes later to breathe a little life into the contest, but there was no sign of what was to come after half-time.

Crow's nervous wait after crunching Saint

Michael Christian has at least one incident to look at from the match, with Adelaide veteran David Mackay's second-quarter collision with Hunter Clark leaving the young Saint with a broken jaw.

With the ball bobbling in the middle of the ground, Mackay came like a freight train – with eyes for the ball – and collected Clark's head with his shoulder almost simultaneously as he laid hands on the ball.

Both men lay on the ground for some time before Clark was helped from the field and replaced by medical sub Jack Bytel minutes later.

Crouch stats up against his old mates

After 95 games for Adelaide, this was the first time Brad Crouch had played his former club since his off-season free agency move.

And the 27-year-old was at his burrowing, hard-working, contested ball-winning best. The slippery conditions were right up Crouch's alley and the new Saint made the most of them, gathering a game-high 36 disposals (20 contested) and kicking a third-quarter goal.

It wasn't his most fluent game, but after 38 touches against Sydney last week, Crouch is starting to feel right at home in red, white and black.

ST KILDA  4.3  7.6  8.9  8.12 (60)
ADELAIDE  0.0  2.6  6.6  9.12 (66)

 
GOALS  
St Kilda: King 2, Wood 2, Butler, Byrnes, Crouch, Sinclair
Adelaide: Thilthorpe 3, McAdam, Mackay, Rowe, Sloane, Smith, Walker

 
BEST  
St Kilda: Steele, Highmore, Dunstan, Howard, Crouch, Higgins, Sinclair
Adelaide: Seedsman, Keays, Laird, Doedee, Smith   

INJURIES  
St Kilda: Clark (jaw)
Adelaide: Nil   

SUBSTITUTES  
St Kilda: Jack Bytel (replaced Hunter Clark)
Adelaide: Lachie Sholl