The Reds clinched third spot with the victory, which delighted Coolen along with the fact they snap a three-game winless run to take winning form into the finals.

"You have to win a game like this for several reasons, first of all for position number three. So you keep it in your own hands," Coolen said.

"The second reason is to get the confidence back. Everyone knows now Adelaide is back in business. Third it's a special game, it's a special game for our supporters."

Coolen added: "We started the game well, the first 20 minutes, we had a couple of chances to score another goal.

"You could see down the wings we had a lot of speed in the transition moments. You could see from (Andy) Slory, what he can do. It'd be a pity if we couldn't use him anymore."

Slory had to be replaced before the break with a calf injury but Coolen couldn't shed any light on the extent of the problem.

"The moment from the goalkeeper he got a knock on his leg. He had a couple of sprints, but he felt something which wasn't okay," he said.

"He still tried but we see he had problems so it was better to take him off. I'm not sure what happened, we'll have to look at it tomorrow."

Coolen continued he was pleased with skipper and match-winner Travis Dodd's efforts in attack, but conceded Sergio van Dijk would return to the role when fit.

"Of course when Serg is back and fit he'll be our number nine."

The match at Adelaide Oval was played in front of over 21,000 fans creating a terrific atmosphere but Dodd said the surface wasn't ideal.

"There were quite a few boys slipping over. It wasn't fantastic. It was a difficult surface to play that's for sure," he said.

And the Reds skipper added he'd prefer the club's finals matches be played at their normal home ground Hindmarsh Stadium rather than the larger-capacity Adelaide Oval.

"Hindmarsh is our home stadium. That's where we play our best football, so that's where I want to play," he said.