Pain of being kicked out of the AFL finals and resilience gained enduring a horror year can help make Essendon a force next season, caretaker coach Simon Goodwin believes.

Goodwin filled in for suspended coach James Hird against Richmond on Saturday night and has put up his hand to be considered to fill the breach for the entire 12 months of Hird’s ban.

He said the Bombers should set their sights much higher than just treading water until Hird’s return.

“We shouldn’t use next year as a down year, we should use next year as a year that we can really have some success,” Goodwin told reporters.

He spoke to the players on the MCG after Saturday night’s 15.14 (104) to 9.11 (65) loss and said the key message was that this time next year they wanted to be in the finals.

Goodwin said the character they showed to post some nail-biting wins this season, including four by single figures, while dealing with the pressure of the anti-doping investigation into their 2012 supplements program, would help them get there.

“Their courage and their resilience in adverse situations has been a credit to them,” he said.

“That’s a box we can now tick, that this group is starting to find the characteristics that you need to be successful and that’s certainly one of them.

“Am I confident that they can move forward? Of course I am.

“I think this will burn in people’s guts for a long time about not playing finals footy.”

He said Essendon had enough talented youth on their list to help them withstand losing picks in the next two national drafts.

Goodwin said regaining their defensive steel would be an off-season focus, having conceded triple-figure scores in five of their last six games this season.

“As the year’s gone on, our defence has gradually just deteriorated to the stage where teams are consistently kicking 100 points,” he said.

“Through our pre-season it was something that we really ingrained in our group about working hard in defence.

“It’s an area that we’ve got to continue to improve.”