ANZAC Day medallist Joe Daniher is poised to become a "special player" but remains a work in progress, according to Essendon coach John Worsfold. 

Daniher played one of the most influential games of his 75-game career in Essendon's 18-point win over Collingwood at the MCG on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old has had bigger scoreboard returns than the 3.4 he registered against the Magpies – his career high is six goals, against the Brisbane Lions in round eight, 2015 – but he has seldom had the combined impact he had in attack and up the ground.

Full match coverage and stats 

In addition to his three goals, Daniher had three goal assists, pumped the Bombers inside their forward 50 a team-high six times, took half of his eight marks outside the Dons' forward 50, had three hit-outs and even managed two running bounces.

It was a performance that saw Daniher poll eight of a possible nine votes to win the Anzac Day Medal by three votes from teammate Michael Hurley.

Asked about Daniher's performance after the game, Worsfold was confident the spearhead's best was yet to come.

WATCH: Jumping Joe dominates Anzac Day

"Joey is an improving talent, no doubt about that. I said it a fair bit last year that he is a developing key forward," Worsfold said.

"He's achieved a lot already for his age, but he's still developing and learning the game and growing.

"But he's working hard, that's the thing that we're looking for. He wants to get better through hard work, not through just waiting and biding time."

Worsfold said Daniher's rare athleticism for his height (200cm) gave him weapons few key forwards have. 

"He moves around and looks like he wants the ball on the ground and wants to play on all the time and take it on and make quick decisions because he'll back himself with his decision-making," Worsfold said. 

"That's part of what's making him the special player that we think he's going to be."

The Bombers defeated the Magpies despite losing the inside 50 count 43-66, their forward line efficiency enabling them to generate 25 scoring shots.

"It's been a big focus to improve our scoring ability, both in building our squad and then in the way we're playing, so that part is coming along really well," Worsfold said.

"If we start getting 60 or 65 inside 50s then we expect that that's still going to stay high that efficiency and we'll be kicking really good scores. 

"But that's not happening at the moment and that's what we've got to address. We're giving the opposition too many opportunities to challenge us and we want to get better at that."

Five talking points: Essendon v Collingwood  

Worsfold was happy with his squad's fitness for this time of year, reiterating that his post-match comments after the Bombers' round four loss to Adelaide had been taken out of context.

After the Crows game, the Dons coach said former skipper Jobe Watson and some of the other players returning from year-long WADA bans had "hit the wall a little bit" in the losses to Carlton and Adelaide.

But Worsfold said on Tuesday he had been referring to two players and not his entire team, something he had addressed with the club's leadership group in the lead-up to Anzac Day.

"Adelaide is obviously the form team, with Richmond, of the comp, and we couldn't slow them down last week, even though our offence again was reasonable," Worsfold said.

"We're not going to be the only team that Adelaide towel up over there, but we are going to continue to improve and get better at it throughout the year.

"Our fitness is not an issue, it's a management thing that you do with all players. 

"We've got a couple of older players that didn't play footy last year, so that's a different spin we've got to look at."