North Melbourne suffered their second consecutive last-gasp defeat on Sunday as Adelaide hit the front late to win a thriller by one point in their AFL round-nine clash at Etihad Stadium.

North led all game until the final 16 seconds as the Crows kicked their fifth goal in a row to win 18.17 (125) to 19.10 (124). The Kangaroos had been five goals up at the 10-minute mark of the final term.

Jared Petrenko (two goals) was the hero as he ran onto a loose ball and volleyed it through for the winning goal after seventh-gamer Sam Kerridge kicked three of Adelaide’s six goals for the final term.

Kerridge, 20, finished with a game-high six goals while Patrick Dangerfield and Richard Douglas were also influential and Josh Jenkins booted three goals.

“It was a pretty special victory,” Dangerfield, who had 30 disposals, told Triple-M Radio.

North’s finals chances appear slim with a 3-6 record after nine rounds and it’s their fourth defeat by less than a goal in a worrying pattern of struggling to defend an advantage in the final quarter.

Adelaide improved their record to 5-4 against North whose frantic style of play-on football failed to shut down the game in the closing stages.

Small forward Lindsay Thomas kicked five goals for the Kangaroos and Andrew Swallow and Ben Cunnington (three goals) worked hard in midfield.

Thomas kicked four of North’s 10 goals in the first half and the home side surged clear by 39 points early in the second term.

However the Crows booted the last four goals of the second quarter and trailed by only 10 points at halftime.

Kerridge kicked three of Adelaide’s four goals in the third term but the Kangaroos slammed on 6.0 to hold a three-goal advantage at three-quarter time.

The home side started the last quarter strongly before falling apart as they did in last week’s after-the-siren loss to West Coast.

The Crows have a home game against Fremantle next Saturday while North host St Kilda at Etihad Stadium the following day.