Essendon youngster Dyson Heppell believes Mark Thompson's 2014 legacy will be the professionalism he has driven among the playing group to set high standards.

The Bombers season finished with Saturday night's elimination final loss to North Melbourne at the MCG and with it did Thompson's tenure in charge of the club.

Heppell said he had learnt plenty during his season under the interim coach.

"Bomber has been outstanding for the young guys coming into the group," Heppell said.

"He is a very good coach in terms of knowing when to be serious and he explains the game plan in a very simple manner that is easy to follow.

"He has been outstanding for the entire group, he probably doesn't seem it, but he has bought a real professionalism to the way we go about our training and the standards that we set.

"He has driven that really hard with the group to try and coach each other so that is something I have definitely learnt from Bomber."

Heppell said the side would learn a lot of lessons from Saturday night's loss and would be even more driven heading into the 2015 pre-season.

"It was a very disappointing to end the season that way after such a good first half and then it was a completely different second half," he said.

"We are going to use that as motivation for next year and we will assess how we let that happen and be better for the experience."