PORT Adelaide coach Lauren Arnell reflected on 'some really hard times' after steering her side into a preliminary final after the biggest final-quarter comeback in AFLW history.

The Power overran favourites Hawthorn in Saturday evening's semi-final after trailing by 22 points at the final break to set up a showdown with minor premier North Melbourne next weekend.

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Arnell's side is now on eight-game winning streak after bundling the Hawks out of their first finals series in straight sets.

"The first two years of us being in the competition has been the best preparation for us," Arnell said.

"I saw Julia Teakle straight after the game, and she got heaps of heat publicly for the (draw) we had against the Suns … last year. There's so much learning for our crew and so much belief off the back of some really hard times.

"And that's the beauty of sport, you go through some pretty tough stuff, and once you go through some hard times and learn the lesson that you need to get on the good end, and it feels like that right now."

In its first AFLW season, Port Adelaide won one game, two in its second, and now has become the first of the 2022 expansion teams – Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide, Sydney – to reach a preliminary final.

It came off the back of some tweaking at three-quarter time. Sachi Syme was thrown into a defensive forward role, Abbey Dowrick went from midfield to attack and Matilda Scholz took charge of the game.

"I thought we went to a whole new level in that last quarter," Arnell said.

"We've got a few players who, in different moments this season, have sort of had an attitude of 'not today, I'm going to do something about this' and that's a little bit of confidence and maturity.

"It's exciting stuff, and I'm just so pleased for our whole playing group."

First-year Hawks coach Daniel Webster had just one word to describe the opportunity his side gave up.

"Shattered," Webster said.

"Twenty-two more inside 50s, four more scoring shots, and losing a final. Yeah, gutted."

The club's inability to put the opposition away has been a problem throughout its first finals series, where it had four more scoring shots against Brisbane last week only to fall by one straight kick. Against the Power, it was just one point.

There is still a sense of pride in what Hawthorn achieved, but Webster is determined to use the feeling of devastation as a driver into the 2025 season.

"Of course I'm proud of the group and all the work that's gone into it, but we're here to win games and we didn't do that. So, yeah, it's going to hurt," he said.

"Proud of the group, proud of the effort, but also to let the feeling sink in. This needs to drive the group next year, because when things get tough, you need to find that extra gear, and you need that motivation and that's the lesson we need to learn to get better.

"Cough up a lead late in the game like that, and get run over late like that, there's big, big lessons there, which (I) wanted us to learn some from last week, and then I think we might not have, for that last quarter especially."

The Hawks were the walking wounded for much of the second half as Áine McDonagh suffered a severe laceration to her hand, Jasmine Fleming injured her finger, Mattea Breed copped a knee concern and Ainslie Kemp suffered cramping.

"We've got a lot of plans in place around our rotations, what we do when players go down, and we've been building versatility in the side," Webster said.

"Just hard when you lose Áine for that last quarter, when she's obviously been such an important figure for our forward line in terms of setting the players up as well as being a good player herself."

Arnell confirmed that midfielder Cheyenne Hammond was fine, after copping a huge hit to her abdomen/hip in the opening half, but played out the game.