Adelaide's euphoria immediately after beating the Western Bulldogs was quickly replaced with sobering analysis as the Crows prepare to tackle the Cats in the first week of finals.

The Crows will finish the home and away season in fourth place unless St Kilda beat Essendon by more than 15 goals on Sunday. If the South Australian side does snare the double chance it will tackle the red-hot reigning premiers who beat West Coast by 99 points at the weekend.

Adelaide, which has built a reputation for being consistent and competitive, suffered a disappointing 68-point loss to Geelong in Round 14.

Coach Neil Craig said his team could definitely improve on that effort.

"We got belted out here against Geelong, so we've still got that memory pretty strong in our heads," Craig said.

"On that day, there were some things Geelong was exceptional at and we couldn't match them. But there were also some areas ... that we were disappointed with and that had nothing to do with whether we were playing Geelong or any other AFL side."

Craig said his team would be throwing everything at the Cats - if the two teams meet in the qualifying final.

"I've got no doubt we'll be rated the underdog next week, but Geelong is an exceptional side. No one is unbeatable and we'll need to be very clear in that in our minds," he said.

"We're not just going to go in, roll over and have a game of footy, that's not the mentality of our playing group."

It was that never-say-die attitude which saw the Crows finish deserved nine-point winners against the Dogs at AAMI Stadium on Saturday. The home side looked destined for a win when it scored the opening two goals of the fourth quarter but Craig wasn't always confident of a getting a positive result.

"I thought the Western Bulldogs were a bit better than us early in the game and, until we adjusted to the wet conditions, it looked like we were going to be in a bit of trouble," he said.