Adelaide caretaker coach Mark Bickley says his lowly club will slide down a slippery slope if satisfied with a narrow loss to AFL heavyweights Geelong.

The Cats banked their 14.12 (96) to 12.13 (85) victory at AAMI Stadium on Sunday on the strength of a five-goal burst in nine minutes of the second quarter.

But the hard-fought triumph was soured by the report of evergreen forward Cameron Mooney for making head high contact in a bump on Crows defender Graham Johncock.

Mooney collected Johncock, who was crouched over the ball, with a tucked right arm in the first term and was reported on the spot. Johncock was dazed but did not leave the field.

With young forward Tom Hawkins on the verge of returning from a calf injury, and just two minor rounds remaining, any suspension to Mooney jeopardises his finals campaign.

Adelaide 14-gamer Shaun McKernan also faces certain sanction after being reported for a crude trip on Geelong star Steve Johnson in a tense last quarter.

The Crows, defying their 13th position on the ladder, were within six points of the second-placed Cats late in the last quarter.

But Bickley implored his players not to take solace from almost causing one of the upsets of the season.

"It's a very slippery slope when you start being satisfied with a loss," Bickley said.

The interim coach lamented Adelaide winning key stats such as having 60 more disposals and almost double the clearances of Geelong, more inside 50s - but they still lost.

"It's pretty ruthless," Bickley said.

"You think you do a lot of things right but you end up not getting the result you want, so it's disappointing.

"Our downfall was our execution and ability to finish our play ... we just lacked a little bit of composure at times.

"They were able to think their way through some situations better than what we did."

The Crows ultimately paid the price for being unable to halt Geelong's second quarter surge of five unanswered goals in just over nine minutes.

The blitz, largely created by influential onballers James Kelly and Joel Corey, turned a deficit into a lead never relinquished and was pivotal in Geelong champion Jimmy Bartel celebrating his 200th game with a win.

But Geelong coach Chris Scott said there were many lessons to be learnt from the tight triumph.

"The fact that you lose the clearances by that much, there tend not to be too many positives," Scott said.

"It was fortunate we were quite efficient."

Scott welcomed Geelong's bye next weekend, expecting key quartet Matthew Scarlett, Darren Milburn, Hawkins and Andrew Mackie to all be available for their clash with Sydney in a fortnight.

The Crows travel to meet Gold Coast on Saturday.

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