Adelaide has been strong in attack in the first two rounds of 2016, but defender Jake Lever has praised the players in the back half after Saturday’s Showdown win.

The Crows ran out 58-point winners against Port Adelaide despite conceding more inside 50s.

Lever told radio station FIVEaa he was really impressed with the team’s defensive efforts.

“We spoke a lot about it over pre-season our team defence, and I think on the back of that, that is when our ball movement came into play and we were able to get through the Port Adelaide defence,” Lever said.

A common sight on Saturday was a Crows defender dropping off their man to help each other out in marking contests.

Lever said that third man up support is something the team had been working on.

“The last three premierships have been won by Hawthorn and I think that’s (third man up support) what they do really well.”

“Obviously over the pre-season that’s one thing we’ve worked on that support third in and I think especially Saturday you saw that come out to play.”

Lever said he enjoyed having the freedom to impact on contests.

“I love to help out the likes of Tals (Daniel Talia) and Harto (Kyle Hartigan) who generally get the two key forwards that the sides have,” he said.

“It’s definitely a role I enjoy playing and helping them but equally when I’m playing on a man I love when Harto, Tals or Chenes (Kyle Cheney) to come over the top and help me."

Lever didn’t stop at praising just his fellow key defenders and said players like Rory Laird and Luke Brown had taken their games to new levels.

“He’s (Laird) been fantastic both games that we’ve played now.”

“I think another player who’s been really good is Luke Brown, I think he had a career high 26 touches so he is starting to get more attacking and with the ball he is just fantastic, he’s a great kick, he’s a great decision maker.”