ADELAIDE coach Matthew Nicks was full of pride after his side's thrilling one-point victory over Geelong on Thursday night.

The Crows took a top-eight scalp after an enthralling contest as they improved to 7-5.

CROWS v CATS Full match coverage and stats

"Deep down I just know how good we are," Nicks said.

"It's hard sometimes to walk in here and talk to that, but I will today. The boys executed under immense pressure, I'm incredibly proud of the way they went about it and they deserve the result."

Geelong kicked the last three goals of the contest but the Crows held on, with skipper Jordan Dawson earning praise for his standout performance.

"He's not bad," Nicks said.

"He's a warrior. Incredibly he just kept going. We had a brief chat, I think it might've been at three-quarter time, that he might be best forward and he said just give me five minutes, and he did an unbelievable job.

"It's probably one that doesn't surprise me and doesn't surprise us, that's why he's our captain.

"You need players like that in certain spots at the right times to get across the line in those games and we did that tonight."

The win was just Adelaide's second against the Cats in the past 11 outings between the two sides.

"We all want to talk results, but it's nice to finish on this side," Nicks said.

"We've played so many games against them that have been tight, so to get one is really pleasing.

"Geelong are a great side, have been for so long, I think it's 2021 the last time we beat them."

The win came despite Adelaide being reduced to just one fit player on the interchange for a section of the last term, with Callum Ah Chee (hamstring) and Jordon Butts (calf) ruled out and youngsters Toby Murray and Hugo Hall-Kahan both receiving treatment following a head clash.

"It's disappointing that we lost those guys but also really pleasing that we were able to hang in there and just fight it out," Nicks said.

Frustrated Geelong coach Chris Scott said he was disappointed with his side's inability to capitalise on its chances.

"I don't think it was won or lost in the last few minutes, we had our chances to win it," Scott said.

"We were a little bit disappointed with our execution late but … it was quite impressive really to give ourselves a chance to win the game.

"It's disappointing because, especially early in the game and probably for the majority of the game, we felt we were at least in it.

"Not in control of the game necessarily but certainly in a couple of key areas we were on top and not able to capitalise."

Scott said the defeat wasn't a game lost to the competition.

"Most teams are going to struggle in that game. In a way, if we had won it would've been a game won to the rest of the competition and we had some really good performances which I think augur well for what might be later in the season for us.

"(Patrick) Dangerfield was as good as he's been all year, looking more like himself and that's as well as I've seen (Sam) De Koning play through the middle.

"We brought a couple of guys in who have been dominating in the lower levels and they played well, (Jack) Bowes and (Oli) Wiltshire.

"Just not quite good enough to get it done against a good team."

Quizzed about an interaction with supporters while making his way from the coaches' box to ground level, Scott said he felt coaches shouldn't have to walk through the crowd to get to the field.

"It's an oversight that coaches should have to walk through the crowd," he said.

"I don't want to do it at any ground."