Adelaide led by two goals in the last quarter before North kicked four in a row - including two from Jack Ziebell in a four-goal performance - grinding out a win coach Scott said was laden with the intensity they will need to muster in September.

"You can practice all you like, but you don't get a lot of opportunity to practice in September intensity," Scott said after the seven-point win at Bellerive Oval. "I think the players would have felt that last 10 minutes was like a final, that's what we're going to get in finals for four quarters, so the more practice you can get at that the better."

He said that in Ziebell, Ben Cunnington, captain Andrew Swallow, Drew Petrie, Sam Gibson, Michael Firrito and Scott Thompson, the Kangaroos boast a leadership group that can cover for losses even as marked as those experienced last week.

"I thought they were superb. I haven't said anything about Harvey and Wells for the entire week... externally people are talking about it. When you lose a couple you just replace them. We've got confidence in our depth, and we've needed depth this year because we haven't had great availability."

Essendon looms as North's likely elimination final opponent, and Scott said next Saturday night's round 23 clash with Melbourne would be viewed more as a chance to bring players back than give weary personnel a rest.

"The old 'one week at a time', to be honest, probably doesn't apply, because we have to look at getting our squad up and going," he said, hoping Lachie Hansen will return along with Wells, and keen to see how Jamie Macmillan performed in the VFL this weekend.

"I think it's as much looking at who's going to come in as who might go out. There's still pressure on for spots, there were players out there today fighting for their football lives."

He was buoyant about the performance of 18-year-old Kayne Turner, the youngest player on an AFL list who came in for his second game and attacked the ball with an intensity that will make him hard to leave out.

"That's exactly why we've got him at the club, these sort of games," Scott said. "His courage, his aggression and tenacity is all fantastic, but he's actually a classy little footballer too. He's a good package. He doesn't care that he's the youngest player in the AFL, or that he's still at school."

Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson bemoaned missed opportunities and poor decisions he felt cost the Crows the game. He would not specifically criticise James Podsiadly for lashing out at Michael Firrito late in the game, losing possession as he was about to take an easy shot at goal, and conceding a 50-metre penalty.

"He wasn't the only one, there were other times today we let each other down with the way that we played," Sanderson said. "Firrito does niggle at you all day, he's an aggressive player and obviously Pods lost his cool. A critical time of the game but there were other moments we could have handled better as well."

Richmond will tip the Crows out of the eight if it defeats St Kilda on Sunday, and keep them there if can conjure a win over Sydney in the last round. Sanderson admitted it was debatable whether his team deserved to play finals.

"We've missed a great opportunity to control where we went from here. Two wins would have put us in. Now we need to beat St Kilda next week and rely on a lot of things going our way.

"Right at the moment you can probably tell I'm incredibly emotional about the result because it was there for us, and we were in front, and we didn't grab it."