Yet, the Ballarat product still can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement of a finals series.

Ashmore's North Melbourne progressed the hard way, nabbing a final-quarter goal before holding on by the skin of its teeth to snatch the last finals spot with a one-point win against Fremantle.

"I swear to God I was shaking for four hours after the game," she told The Courier.

"I just worked myself up. It was just one of those games where we had to hold on.

"It kind of felt like a final. We had to win to get in, or we had to rely on someone else, and we didn't want to do that. It was a really good contest."

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Ashmore is no stranger to finals football, having made the grand final in both of her two seasons with the Brisbane Lions.

However, this year is a change with the AFLW introducing a top-six finals series for the first time.

"It's been a bit different than when I was at Brisbane because the season stopped, and it was literally the grand final next week. There wasn't that cut-throat grand final," she said.

"I guess you've just got to go in thinking every game could be the grand final. You've got to play the best footy you can, and hopefully, your team gets over the line."

North Melbourne will meet a familiar foe in Collingwood on Saturday.

The Roos beat the Pies in last season's semi-finals, a day before the season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

History favours Collingwood, who romped to a 20-point win in this season's round four clash.

"It will be a good contest, that's for sure," Ashmore said.

"We just need to increase our contested footy. I think sometimes we drop off, and we've been lacking with our inside 50 work.

"We've just got to maintain what we've been doing, (especially) coming off last week.

"I think the group we've got going now is probably the best that we've had.

"Obviously, last year got cancelled, so it's just nice to have an extra week and continue doing what we like to do."

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