Senior coach John Worsfold says the Bombers have plenty of improvement to come after fielding a youthful side in the three-point win over the Crows at Adelaide Oval.

Missing All Australians Dylan Shiel, Dyson Heppell, Cale Hooker, Jake Stringer and Joe Daniher, Essendon had an average of just 76 games per player on Sunday - the second lowest of the round behind Sydney.

But it was a raft of youngsters who stepped up to deliver the club its fifth victory of the season.

Andrew McGrath led the charge, amassing new career-highs in tackles (10) and clearances (eight), while Jordan Ridley (team-high eight intercepts), Darcy Parish (equal game-high 13 contested possessions) and Ned Cahill (two goals in his second game) were vital.

While the performance lacked polish at times, Worsfold said he was excited about the Bombers' upside.

"With some of the changes we’ve had to make the last few weeks, we’re really pleased with players being able to come in and help us win. That’s a credit to the group," Worsfold said.

"Both teams were pretty young today. It means there’s a lot of upside in terms of learning and growing. Really mature teams tend to make the right decisions more often. From our perspective, we’re seeing a lot of really good stuff in the way we want to move the ball, but we also know there’s a lot of habits we need to keep addressing and training to get better at.

"We’ll slowly get some players back over the next three to four weeks which will strengthen our position, but I’m confident in the guys who are out there for us at the moment.

"We’re confident, and we’ve been confident all the way through, that we’ll continue to improve as the year goes on with the way we want to play."

The Bombers will face a five-day break before hosting the second-placed Lions at Metricon Stadium on Friday night.

They'll be likely to make at least one forced change, with Jayden Laverde succumbing to injury.

The forward had his ankle caught underneath him in a contest and wasn't seen after half-time.

"So it's an ankle and obviously he couldn't come back on," Worsfold said.

"We expect he's unavailable for next week but exactly what the issue is we need to get scanned."

The Bombers are also unlikely to be without Orazio Fantasia for a second consecutive game as he recovers from a calf injury.

"Fantasia unlikely, but Tom Cutler and Sam Draper had really good hit-outs the other day," Worsfold said.

"Dylan Shiel comes off suspension next week so he's available, James Stewart has been pushing up for a couple of weeks."

The club will release an injury update on Tuesday afternoon ahead of round nine.