Its performance in making the NAB Cup Grand Final was one thing. With pre-season games, you can never be sure whether two competing sides are equally focused on winning.
That’s never a problem, though, when the home and away season kicks off.
So Essendon’s 55-point round-one thrashing of the Western Bulldogs - one of this season’s most highly fancied sides - suggests its NAB Cup campaign will not remain the highlight of its year; that unlike the Carlton teams that won the 2005 and 2007 pre-season competitions, the Bombers can have an impact on the season proper.
Certainly Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade thinks so.
He left no one in any doubt of that at his press conference after Sunday’s match.
“Essendon are a very good side,” he said. “There’s no doubt they’ll make the eight and they’re certainly a contender for the top four.”
When a reporter suggested that was a big statement, Eade did not back down.
“They’ve got some talent. They’ve got some dangerous forwards. Obviously we didn’t play very well, but they didn’t allow us to and they beat us in most areas.”
Eade also said that in David Hille and Patrick Ryder the Bombers had a flexible ruck combination that ensured they were well placed to exploit the new substitute role, which has been widely seen as spelling the end of one-dimensional back-up ruckmen.
When asked about any discernible differences in Essendon’s play this year, Eade said it seemed to be kicking long down the boundary line more often.
The Bulldogs coach said also the Bombers had probably improved their intensity but not as much as some might be thinking, reminding everyone they had been the No.1 ranked side for tackles in last year’s home and away season.
Not surprisingly, after his first AFL match as a senior coach, Bombers coach James Hird was more circumspect.
"We're very conscious that the Essendon footy club, I reckon, hasn't handled big or good wins that well," Hird said after the match.
"Even in my day, we'd have a couple of wins and the club would get really excited and then you'd have a couple of big losses.
"It's one win, our first win for the year. We've got a very tough football team next week, in the Sydney Swans in Sydney, so we can't afford to get carried away.
"Yes, we've won a game of football and the boys have played well. But that doesn't make our season."
Hird’s right. And he’s right to try to hose down - even if just a little - the excitement that has many Essendon fans hailing him as the new messiah. There were pins on sale today commemorating Hird’s coaching debut, for goodness sakes.
We’ll soon see exactly what the Bombers are made of. In the next four weeks, they play the Sydney Swans (ANZ Stadium), St Kilda (Etihad Stadium), Carlton (MCG) and Collingwood (MCG).
If they win three, even two, of those, Eade may just be on the money.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
