ADELAIDE coach Brenton Sanderson doesn't fear his team being eliminated from the finals in straight sets.

Since the introduction of the final eight, only two teams, Carlton in 1994 and Geelong in 1997, have finished the minor rounds in second spot, only to crash out with consecutive losses.

After losing to the Sydney Swans last weekend, the Crows face Fremantle on Friday night in a do-or-die semi final clash.

But while a loss would be seen to have undone the side's impressive work during the regular season, Sanderson said his team couldn't afford to talk about the possibility.

"We very rarely, if ever, talk to our players about 'if we lose this game', it's just such bad body language, bad discussion, we never talk about 'if we lose this week'," Sanderson said.

"It's constantly about what we need to do to play well.

"If we win, we'll talk about a prelim [final], if we lose we'll talk about the disappointment I guess of losing two finals, but there's not much point in talking about that before the match."

Rather than look at last weekend's loss as a wasted opportunity to progress directly into a home preliminary final, Sanderson said he preferred to look at Friday's game as an immense opportunity.

He said the first quarter against Fremantle was all that mattered.

"If I asked the players in October last year, 'I'm going to put you in a semi-final at home', they would have grabbed it - I would have grabbed it," he said.

"It's a great opportunity for us to take on Fremantle, who we've beaten twice this year ... it'll be ugly at times but the rewards are great, the reward is you play in a prelim final.

"There's six teams left, we've got to win three games to win a premiership.

"But nothing's more important than the first quarter against Fremantle this week."

Sanderson confirmed star forward Kurt Tippett would play, amid external pressure to drop the 25-year-old after a disappointing display last week.

Tippett managed only eight disposals and was kept goalless against the Swans, prompting calls from the club's inaugural coach Graham Cornes and Port Adelaide legend Warren Tredrea to axe him.

Sanderson said he didn't hesitate to pick Tippett and also backed ruckman Sam Jacobs to rebound after he was beaten by Swan Shane Mumford in the qualifying final.

"He (Jacobs) probably lowered his colours a bit to Mumford a bit last week but he's one of those players, he's really proud, he's had a great year, I'm sure he'll play better this week.

"Doesn't get much harder than (Aaron) Sandilands ... but I'm sure he'll play well tomorrow night."

Harry Thring is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry