The Bombers earned a 'home' elimination final against North Melbourne after escaping a Blues onslaught to finish with a draw at the MCG on Saturday.
Essendon gave the Blues a 30-point head start at quarter-time, then reeled-off 10 of the next 11 goals to lead by the same margin during the third term.
But they faded badly towards the end of the match, almost succumbing to a defeat that would have sent them interstate to play Port Adelaide in an elimination final.
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Although the Bombers showed how damaging they can be in an eight-goal to one second term, producing it for an entire match remains their challenge.
"At the moment on that form today we're not up with Sydney or Hawthorn, but we like to think that our best footy – when we're on – we can match those teams," Hibberd told AFL.com.au.
"If we bring a four-quarter effort next week against the Kangaroos that will go a long way to winning.
"We're just pumped and really looking forward to the opportunity of playing finals."
It will be the Bombers' first finals campaign since 2011 after they were sanctioned by the AFL for governance failures and booted out of finals last season.
"It's massive (for the club)," Hibberd said.
"You play footy to play finals. To not get in the finals last year was obviously disappointing and there was a bit more incentive this year to get in there and play well."
Essendon has only played North once this season, way back in round one when the Bombers got up by 39 points.
However, Hibberd said that clash was irrelevant and said the Bombers would study the Roos' recent form during their three-straight wins.
"You definitely look at their recent form. Round one's a long time ago and they play differently now and so do we," he said.
"We'll watch the edits (of their game against Melbourne) during the week and see what we can get out of that, but we're looking forward to the challenge and it's going to be a good game."
Although the Bombers showed how damaging they can be in an eight-goal to one second term, producing it for an entire match remains their challenge.
"At the moment on that form today we're not up with Sydney or Hawthorn, but we like to think that our best footy – when we're on – we can match those teams," Hibberd told AFL.com.au.
"If we bring a four-quarter effort next week against the Kangaroos that will go a long way to winning.
"We're just pumped and really looking forward to the opportunity of playing finals."
It will be the Bombers' first finals campaign since 2011 after they were sanctioned by the AFL for governance failures and booted out of finals last season.
"It's massive (for the club)," Hibberd said.
"You play footy to play finals. To not get in the finals last year was obviously disappointing and there was a bit more incentive this year to get in there and play well."
Essendon has only played North once this season, way back in round one when the Bombers got up by 39 points.
However, Hibberd said that clash was irrelevant and said the Bombers would study the Roos' recent form during their three-straight wins.
"You definitely look at their recent form. Round one's a long time ago and they play differently now and so do we," he said.
"We'll watch the edits (of their game against Melbourne) during the week and see what we can get out of that, but we're looking forward to the challenge and it's going to be a good game."
