Patrick Dangerfield and Graham Johncock were having lamentable afternoons before they redeemed themselves with late match-turning moments in Adelaide's gutsy five-point AFL win over Brisbane on Sunday.

The Crows were 20 points down midway through the final term before they rattled off the last four goals to steal a 16.14 (110) to 16.9 (105) victory in an error-riddled match between competition stragglers at the Gabba.

It was the second victory in as many games for Adelaide's caretaker coach Mark Bickley who has only been in the job a fortnight after Neil Craig stood down following a massive loss to St Kilda.

Johncock made his impact when switched from defence to attack for the start of the last term, kicking the opening goal and more importantly the winning final goal to seal victory.

It was a complete form turnaround for Johncock who had just six effective disposals in the first three terms and was fortunate not to be benched.

Dangerfield's moment of glory occurred deep in time on when he made a match-saving tackle on Andrew Raines just as the Lions midfielder was hunting a goal from the forward pocket.

Raines' attempted shot went out of bounds, saving the Crows from conceding a goal at worst or having to restart play with a kick-in from a behind.

Bickley nominated Dangerfield's last gasp tackle as the standout of the last-term fightback.

"Our whole last quarter was pivotal," Bickley said.

"Patrick - it hadn't gone his way, but he stayed in the contest and we knew if we defended, it would create opportunities to attack and we were in front.

"If he didn't make that tackle, maybe we wouldn't have won."

However, victory appeared unlikely when the Lions took control with a six goal to three second term and, when Aaron Cornelius kicked the last of his four goals at the 17-minute mark of the third term, the Lions led by 24 points.

Yet Bickley was confident victory could be stolen, especially after he saw several Lions players getting a rubdown at three-quarter time.

"I had a glance while I was gathering myself and talking to the players and I did notice they had a lot of guys getting rubs, and none of our guys were getting rubs, so I was confident we had the legs and could finish really strongly."

While the first half was entertaining, the game was marred by poor decision making and errors with more than a quarter of both sides' kicks being ineffective.

The Lions suffered an early blow when they lost key defender Joel Patfull with a suspected broken hand, but coach Michael Voss focused on the latter stages of the game when the Crows started to gain the ascendancy.

"Johncock going forward late was pretty important. He won a couple of crucial balls," Voss said.

"Our run dropped away considerably. More the way that we wanted to move the footy dried up a fair bit.

"They came back inside so many times, it's going to be hard to watch the vision and watch it over and over again."

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