Essendon hope history repeats on Sunday and an Anzac Day victory over Collingwood can give impetus to their AFL season after an unconvincing start.

The Bombers, finalists last year, enter Sunday's big MCG clash with their season already in delicate territory, on a 1-3 record and coming off a poor performance against West Coast.

Collingwood are strongly placed after last round's convincing victory over Hawthorn.

But Bombers midfielder Ricky Dyson says his side was also under pressure approaching last year's Anzac Day clash, before boosting their confidence with a stunning comeback win over the Magpies.

"Last year was a great game, we were under the pump coming into the game, the team wasn't going as well as we would have liked," Dyson said.

"We were down halfway through the last quarter, and even with about five minutes to go, and the guys just hung in there and we got a couple of late goals and we got over the line."

Dyson scored one of those late goals as the Bombers triumphed by five points, one of two he scored for the day, along with 27 touches.

"Personally it was one of those games that I was able to put in a consistent performance and I guess it really kick-started my year," he said.

Another Bomber to get a kick-start from that match was ruckman Patrick Ryder, best afield after senior rucking partner David Hille went down early with a knee injury.

That performance helped the athletic big man establish himself as one of the Bombers' most important players.

"It was just something that kicked his season off as well, David went down early ... it was left to Paddy to perform for the rest of the day and he really did," Dyson said.

The midfielder said the intense atmosphere of the sold-out match meant it was a fixture in which winning could provide a big mental boost.

But he said the Bombers would need to improve greatly on their early season form.

Dyson said the major failing in their three losses so far had been lapses of focus which allowed opposition sides short, damaging scoring bursts.

He said the Bombers were confident they were good enough to back up last year's finals appearance, but their improvement needed to start on Sunday.

"We know we've got a lot to improve on from our last four games, but as a playing group we're very driven and we know what we want, we want to play finals this year.

"But I think the most important thing is going out this week and putting in a solid performance and I guess making a few things right that we didn't do so well last week."

They will be helped by the return from injury of three key players - Mark McVeigh, Brent Stanton and Angus Monfries.

The Magpies dropped veterans Leigh Brown and Tarkyn Lockyer and lost fullback Simon Prestigiacomo (groin), adding young trio Nathan Brown, Chris Dawes and Ben Reid.

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