Last year's premiers snatched up the preliminary final by eight points at Rutherglen's Barkly Park.

Ruben Bennett and Mikaela Trethowan booted a goal each for the Bulldogs, while Chelsea Hargreaves played a pivotal role in keeping their grand final dreams alive.

Bulldogs' coach Tim Madden said Hargreaves has cemented herself as a consistent performer for the side this season.

"Her (Hargreaves) last six games of footy would have been as good as anyone's in the competition," Madden said.

"She was awesome again and really critical for us.

"Every time you win through to a grand final it's great, so the mood was definitely one of happiness in the rooms after the game.

"To Lavington's credit, they played a really good game of footy and made us work for it.

"It probably wasn't our best game, but the girls dug in and we got the result in the end."

Sarah Oliver and Emily Weavers were the goal kickers for Lavington, while the Bulldogs struggled at times to convert opportunities, finishing the day with 11 behinds.

Madden admitted that was an area for improvement heading into face Wodonga Raiders in the grand final.

"We were going really wide into the pocket and made it hard for ourselves," Madden said.

"There's a few things we can clean up which will help us take our opportunities in the grand final."

Despite the upcoming grand final between Thurgoona and Wodonga Raiders being a rematch of last year, the Bulldogs will head into the clash with only eight players from their 2018 premiership side.

While it was the Bulldogs who maintained an undefeated season last year, it's the Raiders who will head in with the upper hand this time around.

"The girls are really looking forward to playing them again," Madden said.

"We've had three tries without any luck, but I thought last week against them we had a chance to win the game and just didn't play our best.

"If we can play our best footy and be really clean, I think it should be a good game."

The AFL NEB open women's grand final between Thurgoona Bulldogs and Wodonga Raiders will be played on Sunday at Birallee Park with the game set to kick-off at 12:45pm.