ON SATURDAY evening, Port Adelaide pulled off a remarkable comeback against a highly fancied Hawthorn side to win its way through to its first preliminary final.

Down by 22 points at the three-quarter time break, the Power was 17 minutes away from its impressive seven-game winning streak coming to an abrupt halt. But it steeled itself and accomplished the biggest final quarter comeback in AFLW history.

"Momentum is an important thing in football, but momentum in the back end of the season becomes even more important," Lucy Watkin said on Credit to the Girls.

"I think this game was the embodiment of that cliché that we always hear in any sport, any team could beat anyone on their day."

Throughout the opening three quarters, the second-placed Hawks were largely controlling the play, generating a whopping 46 inside 50s in that time, but only converting three goals from 11 scoring shots.

The Hawks keep the door open

"The most disappointing thing for them probably will be (that) they had 30 inside 50s in the first half alone, they average 36 in a game for the season, so they almost had a game's worth of inside 50s in the first half and they couldn't put the score on the board," Watkin said.

"I feel like there was that moment for the Hawks in the first three quarters where you thought, if they kick this goal, the dam wall is going to bust. If they kick this goal, it's just going to open them up, it's going to make it really hard for Port Adelaide. But they just couldn't get the moment.

"And Port Adelaide, they grabbed their moment when they had it."

This kept the door open for the Power, who proved in the weeks leading up to the game that it has a never say die attitude, coming from behind to defeat Greater Western Sydney in week 10 of the home and away season, and lobbing back everything Richmond threw its way in last week's elimination final.

So, in a deficit and with nothing to lose, Lauren Arnell threw caution to the wind.

"What Port Adelaide did was they chucked all of their big guns ahead of the ball in the last quarter," Gemma Bastiani said.

"Abbey Dowrick had a tough start to the game, six disposals to three-quarter time, chuck her in the forward line. Sachi Syme goes forward to play a defensive forward role there to give them a little bit more. GemmaHoughton ticks up a notch, she had seven disposals in the first three quarters, had six in the last quarter. And then Matilda Scholz just went off her head, just took control of the game.

"So, they kind of threw everything at the wall, said 'We've got nothing to lose in this last quarter, let's put the best players where they can do the most damage'. And that was the result."

The Power's fourth quarter surge

In contrast, Hawthorn's gun midfield duo of Emily Bates and Eliza West were both held firmly out of the contest late in the game as Port Adelaide controlled the contested situation.

The pair combined for 36 disposals and seven clearances until the final break, but recorded just four disposals and zero clearances in the last term.

"Emily Bates is the type of player that would think 'We should have won that game', and I think they're the hardest ones as a player, when you lose a game that you know you probably should have won," Watkin said.

"But I think Daniel Webster said it as well in his press conference, it keeps the fire burning."