JOHN Worsfold believes the best is yet to come for Essendon, saying if the Bombers work hard enough after the bye, there are plenty more wins to be had.

Essendon won its fifth match for the season – and the third in its past four – against Brisbane on Sunday to keep its faint finals hopes flickering.

WOOSHA ON THE WIN Watch the coach's full media conference

In another good sign for the Bombers, off-season recruits Jake Stringer (22 touches, nine tackles and three goals), Adam Saad (24) and Devon Smith (20, six tackles and a goal) were all pivotal in the victory.

Worsfold said after a poor start to its year, Essendon was just starting to hit its stride.

DONS WIN A SCRAP Full match coverage and stats

"We're a little bit disappointed with some of our performances, but we've seeing a lot of growth and learnings in that time," he said.

"I think we're starting to see players playing roles that we didn't really know how much we'd use them in those roles early in the year.

"Saad is starting to build chemistry with (Michael) Hurley and (Cale) Hooker, and Stringer through the midfield and forward is really starting to impact.

"We've still got a lot of work to do, a lot of upside, which is going to take a lot of work throughout the remainder of this year, but we know a lot of it will be good enough to win a lot of games."

Worsfold said he had some concerns against the Lions, but overall was pleased with the performance.

Essendon won the inside 50 count handsomely, 65-44, and its 75-60 advantage in the tackle count was indicative of its hunger to win.

Missed chances in the third quarter – particularly from Shaun McKernan, Stringer, Smith and Josh Green – could have been costly, but Brisbane was just as wasteful.

"We had 23 inside 50s, which is a big quarter, to six or seven for 1.7, and some of those were easy shots at goal.

"The boys who missed those shots will continue to work on that.

"There wasn't much wrong with that quarter other than missing a few easy shots at goal.

"Overall, we controlled big parts of the game, didn't really hurt them in that third quarter when we had the ball locked in our front half, which kept the game a bit tighter.

"I was a bit concerned about how strongly we would match their run in the last quarter, but I thought the players were outstanding."