Adelaide will play Brisbane in the inaugural AFL Women's grand final next week after the Crows defeated Collingwood by 24 points in hot conditions at Olympic Park on Sunday.
The Crows' grand final hopes were looking grim when they were held scoreless in the third quarter as their 13-point halftime lead turned into a seven-point deficit at three-quarter time.
Adelaide's hearts were in their mouths when Collingwood's Jess Cameron lined up for goal early in the final quarter.
But instead of giving the Pies a 13-point lead, she missed a sitter and the Crows grabbed their second life with both hands as they piled on the last five goals of the game to run out 10.10 (70) to 7.4 (46) winners.
Sarah Perkins and Erin Phillips played pivotal roles in the Crows' come-from-behind victory. Perkins racked up 15 disposals, five marks and four goals while Phillips collected 21 touches and three goals.
Stephanie Chiocci (five tackles) and Sarah D'Arcy each had 13 disposals for Collingwood.
The Crows' domination of disposals (171-139), contested possessions (104-72) and inside-50s (33-18) was also a key factor in the result.
Adelaide's win came at a cost though with Courtney Cramey suffering a concussion in the first quarter and taking no further part in the game. She is in a race against time to be fit for the grand final.
Adelaide coach Bec Goddard praised the resilience her players displayed in the last quarter.
"You may not want to know," Goddard joked when asked what she said to her players at the final change.
"The third quarter wasn't us ... we got in pretty tight just to talk about what's expected in regards of the determination and fortunately there was a pretty good response."
Collingwood coach Wayne Siekman was left to rue what might have been had Cameron converted her fairly straight-forward shot for goal.
"It's a hard one, isn't it? You go home tonight and think, 'what happens if 'Camo' kicks that goal? You're 13 points up with 13 minutes to go, what does that look like?'," Siekman lamented.
"But she didn't and as a football team we allowed that ball to get out from the kick-out, (Adelaide captain Erin) Phillips gets out the back and then they score a goal and it changes the game so you've got to take your chances."
