A devastated Adelaide coach Neil Craig has conceded his Crows let a wonderful opportunity slip through their fingers in Saturday's two-point loss to Geelong at Skilled Stadium.

After trailing by 27 points midway through the third quarter, Adelaide surged to an eight-point break at the 14-minute mark of the final term when Brett Burton landed the last of his four goals from deep in the pocket at the Doug Wade Stand end.

It took two sensational snaps from Paul Chapman to wrest back a three-point lead for the Cats who managed to hold the visitors to just one behind in the final 10 minutes of play.

Craig was full of praise for his players' persistence but said their ball movement broke down badly under pressure when the result was on the line.

"We came here to win, and with the way the premiership table is, it ended up being a costly loss for us," Craig told his post-match media conference.

"We take a lot of things out of it, but we've set ourselves to be the best in the competition and we're still not there, obviously."

"When it gets that close, sometimes it can be the bounce of the ball but I would say in general Geelong, particularly early in the game, played a lot better than us."

"All recognition to them, particularly with the number of players they've got out - they've got depth and they're a hardened football club with hardened players that know how to win."

Now trailing the third-placed Western Bulldogs and fourth-placed Collingwood by a game, Craig agreed the Crows are not yet assured of a berth in the finals.

Somehow the club will need to come up with at least eight points from its remaining four games against Collingwood, Hawthorn, West Coast and Carlton.

"We're not over the line by any stretch of the imagination and we've got a tough draw," said Craig.

"But the more we can play against high-level competition, the better and the quicker we will develop."

"In terms of where we want to go and how quickly we want to get there, you can't buy these type of games."

"I'm sure a lot of our supporters will be saying it's a really tough draw and it is, but we wouldn't have it any other way for where we need to go."