Essendon players trudge off Optus Stadium last September after yet another elimination final thrashing. Photo: AAP

What if I told you … a club that has been stumbling in the darkness of mediocrity for 15 long years is about to emerge blinking into the light. The same club that, only a few years ago, endured a drugs crisis unparalleled in Australian sports history.

Essendon is hiding in plain sight.

The club’s presence as a bona fide contender is understandably masked by its penchant for flattering to deceive and the negative headlines that have punctuated recent months.

Gold Coast aside, the Bombers wear the title of longest finals win drought – you have to go back to 2004 for any red-and-black celebrations in September – like a thorny crown.

Just when Essendon fans thought it was safe to start picking up the morning paper again, following the fallout from Joe Daniher’s trade request and fellow star forward Orazio Fantasia’s near-exit last year, the “bad news Bombers” returned with a vengeance.

The December reports of delayed pre-seasons for a number of injured key players got the ball rolling.

The ball then morphed into a new year avalanche with news of Zach Merrett’s controversial leadership group dumping, Daniher likely to miss the first half of the season, injuries to Tom Bellchambers and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, and homesick Irish import Conor McKenna returning home.

Did I miss anything?

It’s against this bleak backdrop, and the club’s “Groundhog Day” 2019 elimination final drubbing at the hands of the Eagles, that popular football opinion has condemned the Dons to mid-table purgatory for the foreseeable future.

And that, perhaps, is key.

For despite all its struggles, Essendon – like all original “big four” clubs in Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton – has all too regularly hopped on and off the hype train.

Now, finally, the club is free of the shackles of inflated expectations – even amongst the ever-optimistic red-and-black faithful – having been replaced with weary scepticism.

Funnily enough, the same type of scepticism that defined the Richmond 2016 and Collingwood 2017 rock bottoms, before each club’s heady ascension.

But of course, success also requires tangible improvement, which often manifests itself in addressing areas of weakness.

The Bombers’ problems have all too often been laid bare in recent times. A lack of tactical nous in the coach’s box, inside midfield toughness and general depth have long plagued the club.

But the coaching changes announced last season were inspired.

Holding on to incumbent John Worsfold for one more year not only aids Ben Rutten’s transition to senior coach in 2021, but also secures the enormous amount of goodwill Worsfold generated – particularly among the players – through his handling of the supplements saga.

Meanwhile, new arrival Blake Caracella provides the “front men” with the sort of evil football genius that Essendon has long craved behind the scenes.

That Rutten and Caracella have been there, done that in terms of reformation projects for underperforming big clubs – courtesy of their uber-successful time together at the Tigers – only sweetens the pot.

The revamped coaching panel can also rely on a stable administration after chief executive Xavier Campbell committed to the club amidst reports of a potential move to the AFL.

The off-season acquisitions of big-bodied former Lion Tom Cutler and rugged former premiership Tiger Jacob Townsend represent sneaky good business in bolstering the club’s inside midfield grunt.

These are relatively low-key investments for an engine room already boasting high-end earners, in the likes of Dylan Shiel and captain Dyson Heppell, and perhaps with its sights set on adding one more down the road.

Speaking of Shiel, one suspects that with last year’s adaption under his belt and more help around him, he is primed to re-apply the polish that was missing at times in 2019.

And don’t forget that Heppell played most of last season on one leg and that the club’s hard-nosed 2018 best and fairest winner Devon Smith is back from the knee injury that ruined his last campaign.

There is also a sneaky chance that young bull Kyle Langford’s struggles last season can be put down to second year midfield blues following his breakout 2018.

Taking a step back, it feels like an eternity since the club has fielded so many genuine midfielders, best reflected in the likelihood of Smith, Andrew McGrath and Darcy Parish spending more times on flanks, rather than the other way round, as has long been the case at Bomberland.

Then there is the signing of promising ex-Blues ruckman Andrew Phillips, who together with the recovering Sam Draper, can provide more than adequate cover for the oft-injured Tom Bellchambers and help banish the horror Zac Clarke experience from the collective Essendon fan consciousness.

The spine remains a strength for the club, particularly with Aaron Francis and Patrick Ambrose potentially freeing Cale Hooker to move forward, and the returning James Stewart keeping Shaun McKernan honest in attack.

And the flanks and pockets – headlined by the likes of Adam Saad, Jake Stringer and the fast emerging Mason Redman – are loaded.

While the club’s best 22 is being subjected to the standard off-season debate, it’s names like Matt Guelfi, Marty Gleeson, Langford, Phillips and Dylan Clarke, regularly missing from projected line-ups, that make this incarnation the most promising in some time.

Then there is Daniher. His injury status and desire to leave makes him an afterthought for such analysis. But it also makes Essendon’s brains trust’s decision to keep him a head-scratcher unless they think the club is as close as I am telling you.

And needless to say, what a wildcard he would be if a finals-bound Essendon could plug him into the line-up for the run home.

But what if you still don’t believe me? Perhaps thinking to yourself that the Bombers are likely short on the type of elite players that have underpinned the Tigers and Pies’ renaissances?

Either that or the club will suffer a similar fate to the 2019 Demons after such an injury interrupted pre-season?

You may well be right. But in an era of redemption stories, the real reward has become picking the next one … no matter how unlikely it seems right now.