Pride in progression.

That's the overwhelming feeling in Essendon's Senior Coach Natalie Wood after her side bowed out of the 2024 AFLW season from a 10-point Elimination Final defeat to Fremantle on the road.

Plagued by injury concerns both in the build-up and during the contest, the Bombers won plenty of admirers for their efforts even with stars Bonnie Toogood, Stephanie Wales and Maddy Prespakis all on the sidelines, staying in the contest for most of the game and looking the more efficient side for much of the early stages.

Wood still walks away from the finals with a great deal of pride and reassurance from the Bombers' output, particularly under the pressure of the final term in a knockout game.

"I’m nothing but proud of this group," Wood said.

"Today was a great game. We had a few moments we were able to open the game up but 'Freo' took more of their critical moments and weight of numbers. We missed a few chances in that fourth (quarter) to put some scoreboard pressure on but I thought it was a terrific fight.

"To be right up in it halfway through the fourth was an outstanding effort from our team.

"We were out there to win the game, so we didn’t put numbers behind the ball to stifle their attack, we tried to work to our method. We adapted late in the fourth to try and open the game up a bit more and got some movement, but it was always going to be a hard task. We went in with an aggressive plan but it didn’t come off."

Amidst the disappointment of a season wrapping up, the Dons have taken plenty of positives from the way they've rebounded to turn the fortunes of their 2024 season around.

From their 1-3 start, the Dons barged the door down to solidify a finals place with an inspired run of five wins and a draw from the next seven games, before Saturday's defeat drew the year to a close.

With another year of clear improvement in the books, Wood is already looking ahead with a great deal of confidence for 2025.

"It’s always disappointing when your season ends and the group are quite upset but with a little bit of time, we’ll stop and reflect," Wood said.

"Similar to 'Freo', we had a lot of injury and adversity throughout the year and our ability to evolve and keep improving our game (has been great).

"I look back to how we were playing in round one, some of our craft and attack on the football to where we are now, we’ve come in leaps and bounds. What we’ve worked through and our challenges this year will set us up with a lot of confidence going into next year."