Adelaide defender Brodie Smith has passed a fitness test on his injured ankle and will play in Saturday night’s AFL elimination final against the Western Bulldogs.

The All Australian backman, who was substituted during Adelaide’s loss to Geelong last week, was cleared by medicos after a test at training on Friday.

“Brodie got through, he has ticked all the boxes this week … he will play,” Crows assistant coach David Teague told reporters.

“We have got a lot of important players and Brodie is one of them, he plays a part in the backline and that is all we’re asking of him this week – to play his role.”

Like the Bulldogs, the Crows return to the finals for the first time in three seasons and Teague said there was genuine belief they could challenge all teams remaining in the premiership race.

“We think we can not only play well but put some serious pressure on in the next four weeks,” he said.

“At the start of the year we believed we had a list capable of not only playing finals but winning finals.

“And our form lately has given us a lot of belief that not only are we here to play, we’re here to win.”