ESSENDON'S inability to defend Hawthorn's transition into attack caused major headaches for Brad Scott in his side's 62-point loss on Friday night.

Hosting the Hawks at the MCG in the club's annual round one meeting, a spritely start from the Bombers quickly turned sour, with 72 of Hawthorn's 142 points scored off turnover.

BOMBERS v HAWKS Full match coverage and stats

Scott said although his side was well-prepared for the contest, it just lacked the composure and know-how to stop the Hawks on the fly.

"We really got beaten by what we were concerned about coming into the game," Scott said.

"We were very concerned about their ability to bounce us out of our forward half, and that usually comes from intercept … even though our effort in the contest and ground ball, or ground ball in particular, was OK, our inability to stop them transitioning out of our front half was just nowhere near the level.

"And it's not as if that wasn't a key focus coming into the game … (I'm) reluctant to say it, because people might say 'Well, there's a massive gap', but the reality is, it's a bit off. And it's not as if they did anything that surprised us. (It) was just our inability to stop it."

With the latest rule changes seeing footy played at breakneck speed to start the season, the gap between the better and poorer teams has been somewhat exacerbated.

"I think it's going to be very, very hard to contain very good sides. There's no doubt about that," Scott said.

"The AFL talk about margin compression, well best of luck with that when the best play teams that are young and inexperienced and, perhaps struggling for one reason or another. But I mean, we've got an opportunity to exploit those rules as well. So, that's where our focus will be."

Scott was unsurprised with the performance of his former captain Zach Merrett, who played his first game since a failed trade request to Hawthorn in the off-season.

"He was competitive, he fought, he showed class at times … I think anyone going through a hard time, you can show resilience," Scott said of Merrett, who collected a game-high 32 disposals.

Hawthorn had its own players under the microscope heading into the game after Dylan Moore and Connor Macdonald were arrested late last year for trespassing while in the United States.

"Obviously it's been a massive week for them on an individual basis. If we forget what's actually happened, just for a second, you can ask me about that if you'd like, but if you forget that, you've just got two young men who are on the front and back page of the papers, and there's been a lot of eyeballs on them, a lot of self-consciousness about how they've gone about it, a lot of explaining to do," Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said.

"And so to be able to perform at a high level with all that around you, I'm proud that they were able to do that."

Moore finished with 24 disposals and a goal, offering a crucial link inside 50, while Macdonald kicked two goals from his own 24 touches.