Essendon are ready for their second consecutive appearance in the AFLW finals series.

Saturday night’s win over Carlton solidified the Bombers’ place, rebounding from a tight start and the loss of skipper Bonnie Toogood from an ankle complaint to generate strong momentum in the 36-point victory.

A key component all season long has been Maddi Gay, whose 33-disposal effort along with 741 metres gained (just shy of the AFLW record) continued her push as a potential All Australian this year.

As the Dons’ most experienced finals player from her tenure with the Demons, the advice for her younger teammates this week will be clear.

“I always say ‘just enjoy it’,” Gay said.

“(Finals are) very hard to get into, as ‘Woody’ (Senior Coach Natalie Wood) just mentioned in her post-game speech. It’s like you’ve done a season, but now you’ve got to up it again.

“We just had the full club sing the song, everyone’s really excited that we get to go on for another week. We tried not to think about it this week (being) our last, so it’s good to know we’ve got one more.”

With Toogood going down, the Bombers were put in a tough spot but once again found ways to combat the opposition without one of their stars.

The ‘next person up’ mentality of the playing group has allowed for flexibility in those challenging moments, an element of their improvement this year that’s really impressed Gay.

“We had to do that at the start of the season as well,” Gay said.

“People had to shift positions and it was just the same thing tonight, I actually didn’t even notice the shift in players which is a good thing.

“We’ve got lots of players that can play different role at different times of the game as well, so it’s pleasing to see the growth in that.”

The Dons now await the rest of the weekend’s fixtures to determine next week’s opponent, an exciting time ahead of a second finals appearance within just three years of existence in the competition.