In 2016, John Worsfold's first year at Essendon, there were no expectations on the Bombers. That's what happens when most of your best and experienced players are suspended for the season.

Last year, with key players back and a young group of promising players forming, Essendon did its best to temper expectations. Internally a goal was set to win as many games for the season as they lost.

The Bombers did their best as a club not to get too carried away with having the band back together, regularly reminding fans it would take time for them to gel.

This year, things are noticeably different. Rather than shying away from big plans and hopes, the Bombers are embracing them.

They will go into the season having not won a final since 2004 – the longest drought of any club in the competition – and Worsfold knows what will make 2018 a successful year for the club.

"Definitely playing finals, and winning," he told AFL.com.au this week. "It's been way too long since Essendon won a final. The key focus is, if we make the finals, let's have a crack at going all the way.

"But we have to show improvement on last year, which was making the finals and getting in there in seventh spot and not winning."

The reasons for the optimism are obvious. Essendon made strong in-roads last season and it was built around a group of emerging stars.

The Bombers have perhaps the best young key forward (potentially the best young player) in Joe Daniher, one of the game's elite midfielders in Zach Merrett, last season's NAB AFL Rising Star winner Andrew McGrath and a core group that, as Worsfold says, "won't be retiring in the next five years".

Jobe Watson and James Kelly were their most significant off-season departures, but the Bombers will deploy Brendon Goddard more in defence to fill Kelly's spot and, by the end, Watson was ready to hand the reins over to the next generation of Essendon midfielders.

And then there's the off-season recruiting spree, which saw the club – for its first real tilt at trading in more than a decade – bring in three ready-to-go players (Jake Stringer, Adam Saad and Devon Smith) without losing any of its own. So, with all that in mind, does Worsfold think the Bombers are legitimate challengers?

"I would like to think if you asked that of opposition teams this year, I would hope we're one of the teams [they're saying] that are going to challenge," he said.

"What are they judging that on? I would say last year's performances, and the fact our squad is growing – both in maturity and age – because our high-end talent is still relatively young. And with our trade period as well."

The new faces won't be the only way Worsfold hopes Essendon looks a little different this season. The Bombers were brilliant at stages in 2017, and averaged 95 points a game. Finally, they found a way to score (they reached 100 or more points in 11 games; they had done it only 10 times combined in the previous three seasons).

But they also leaked goals, conceding on average 92 points. In contrast, premiers Richmond gave up on average 74 points. Worsfold is confident some positional tweaks and set-up changes will help cut that back without compromising their own scoring power.

"You're looking to try to reduce your scores by maybe a goal and a half a game," he said.

The midfield will also have a different feel, with Watson – or as Worsfold described him, their "big rock" – gone. He won't be replaced by one Bomber but by many.

They want to use small forwards Orazio Fantasia and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti more in the middle, Darcy Parish will have an increased presence after playing at half-forward a lot of last year, while they are hoping Kyle Langford can make a midfield spot his own.

McGrath will primarily be a midfielder but not purely –"He potentially will still go back at times," Worsfold said – and Stringer and Smith will go through there too.

All eyes will be on Stringer, who has kept a low profile since crossing from the Bulldogs. But Worsfold has been quick to not expect too much from the match-winning premiership player.

"There may be games this year where we don't expect Jake to be individually brilliant, but to play a real team role for us. That is an expectation thing for the crowd. If the crowd want Jake to be one-out in the goalsquare and be the focal point, they've got to be prepared to give up Joe Daniher doing that or Cale Hooker doing that," he said.

"It's not all about Jake, and it's not all about saying unless Jake Stringer is an All Australian this year, we're going to be a successful team."

The acquisition of the three trade targets said plenty about Essendon's lofty intentions this season. But it also highlighted a change in philosophy at the club, which has been renowned around the competition for its reluctance to trade.

"We felt there was some really big benefits to build our list via the trade as opposed to just trying to rely on drafting," said Worsfold, who is into the third and final year of his contract with the club but soon to ramp up discussions for an extension.  

"It has potentially been something the club's missed the last few years but it was a conscious decision to say 'Let's do what's best for Essendon, and not necessarily try to win at all costs over who we're trading with'."

Of course, being through the club's supplements saga helped the recruiting spree too.

The 2013-2016 period, and its lingering effects, meant the Bombers were given some latitude for performances last year. That's gone now, but Worsfold said there were still some enduring effects of the period that are steering the club in the right direction.  

"It's a balance because I would say it's all gone, but there's definitely lessons learned there that we should never forget. So we prefer to use it as a real positive for us, that the club didn't put its head in the sand," he said.

"It took some pretty strong measures to say we're not going to put ourselves in that position again. In terms of residual, I'd say there's some really powerful outcomes that put Essendon in a strong position for the future."