AFLW coach Matthew Clarke delivers his edict to Crows as crunch time awaits

Forget the permutations, it’s all about the ‘W’ for Crows AFLW coach Matthew Clarke, who isn’t about to play the percentage game against the Demons on Saturday.

Crows star Erin Phillips breaks clear against GWS last week. Picture: Sarah Reed

Forget the permutations, it’s all about the ‘W’ for Crows AFLW coach Matthew Clarke.

While flag favourite Adelaide can likely afford to lose its final minor round game to Melbourne at Casey Fields on Saturday by 25 points or fewer and still make the finals, he doesn't want to play the percentage game.

“You look at the table and it’s pretty tight at the top, so we have to win,’’ Clarke said.

“There’s no point dodging that fact. I haven’t gone into too many games trying to lose by a narrow margin, so that’s not the way we will go about it.

“We’re going to win. Maybe with three minutes to go if we are 25 points down I might look at it (percentage), but that’s the only time.

“Going to win is the only way you can attack any game, I reckon.’’

Inaugural AFLW winner Adelaide sits top of Conference A by percentage only ahead of

the Kangaroos and Fremantle.

All three teams boast 5-1 win-loss records.

Melbourne, who the Crows haven’t beaten in the AFLW, is fourth with a 4-2 record.

It can leapfrog Adelaide by winning by 26 points or more.

Erin Phillips of the Adelaide Crows chased by Pepa Randall of the Giants. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Only the top two teams go through to the finals.

Conference A is much stronger than Conference B, which is led by 3-3 teams Carlton and Geelong.

If the Crows don’t beat Melbourne but lose by 25 points or less the only way they can miss the finals is if the Roos and Dockers draw.

But Clarke isn't even thinking about those scenarios.

“It’s a really great comp, really tight and we’ve had to win every week (since losing in round one by a point to the Western Bulldogs), so this week is no different,’’ he said.

“If we win we’ll finish top (of Conference A), which will be great.’’

White-hot Adelaide has made two changes to the team that beat GWS by 32 points last Sunday.

Vice-captain Courtney Cramey returns from missing two games with a hamstring injury while Irish recruit Ailish Considine has been promoted after being dropped for the Giants clash.

They replace the omitted Sally Riley and Nikki Gore.

A key to the Crows’ success this season has been their finishing power.

Adelaide has scored 19.8 (122) while conceding just 3.10 (28) in the final quarter of its matches for a ladder percentage of 435.7.

The next-best record is Fremantle, which has scored 14.17 (101) and conceded 9.9 (63) for a percentage of 160.3.

“We worked ridiculously hard over the off-season and have clearly played out the last quarters really strongly,’’ Clarke said.

“It is a fitness thing, I don't know. It’s probably a little bit of fitness and a little bit of mentality.

“I know our numbers from a GPS point of view are really strong, really impressive, but I don’t know what the other teams numbers are.

“But we are going all right and I think it comes back to their work over the off-season and into the pre-season because they trained at an intensity which was really high.

“If you've done that then when it gets really hard you know that you can stay there, you can live there, and they’ve been able to do that.

“You need the physical capacity, clearly, but you also need to be able to drive yourself when you don’t really want to go anymore but you have to find a way.’’

If Adelaide does finish top spot of its conference it could play a home preliminary final as a double-header to the men’s premiership season opener against Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval on March 23.