Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke has heaped praise on his two midfield guns after Anne Hatchard and Ebony Marinoff produced heroic efforts to lift their side to a nine-point AFLW win over Fremantle.
Hatchard tallied 31 disposals and Marinoff racked up 30 touches in the 3.7 (25) to 2.4 (16) win on Saturday, with Fremantle restricted to just four inside 50s in the second half.
The win kept Adelaide at the top of the ladder with a 7-1 record, while Fremantle slipped to 6-2.
The Crows booted a wasteful 0.5 and two out-on-the-full in the third term, meaning they turned for home down by two points and kicking against the breeze.
But Hatchard produced a scintillating burst early in the final quarter, tallying nine possessions within the space of a few minutes to set up two match-winning goals.
"Both girls had really strong games," Clarke said of Hatchard and Marinoff.
"Both are having outstanding seasons. They lead the way in terms of that work rate. They're phenomenal workers on the track, and that leads to their ability to execute on game day.
"What we spoke about at three-quarter time was just to be really clear that we'd actually just played a really strong quarter, and not to be rattled by the scoreboard."
Crows forward Danielle Ponter was also damaging with two goals from 20 disposals.
Stephanie Cain collected a team-high 22 possessions for Fremantle, with Airlie Runnalls tallying 20 disposals and a goal.
Dockers captain Hayley Miller was restricted to 10 possessions and a goal in her quietest display of the season.
"I think she's probably taken on a little too much workload herself in Kiara Bowers' absence," Dockers coach Trent Cooper said of Miller.
"Maybe that caught up with her today. She did look tired on occasions.
"We'll freshen her up during the week. She's a very proud person. She won't like that individual performance, and she'll be out to make amends very quickly."
Bowers was due to return from her two-match suspension against the Crows, but a knee injury suffered at training on Tuesday ruled her out.
Cooper expects Bowers to also miss next Saturday's crunch clash with Melbourne at Optus Stadium.
Adelaide won the inside 50m count 43-17, and Cooper said the big disparity simply wasn't good enough.
"That needs to be addressed, because we're not going to threaten anywhere near the good sides if we're only getting that many inside 50s," he said.
"If we play like we did today, we don't deserve to be competitive in the finals."
Adelaide are hopeful of regaining Erin Phillips (knee) and Chelsea Randall (hamstring) in time for the finals.
