AFL Round 1 Essendon v Hawthorn: All the news, analysis and fallout from the Bombers’ 24-point win

Brad Scott has been honest that he believes he has a Jekyll and Hyde team - and that rang true against the Hawks. Essendon left with the points, but fans left without answers, writes JOSH BARNES.

If you’ve come here for answers about the Bombers, you won’t find them.

Was the ability to eventually kick clear of Hawthorn late a sign of a team growing in confidence?

Or were the Bombers lucky to be in it at all late in the third quarter?

Not sure.

Is Essendon better than last year?

Ask again later.

It was Hawthorn’s recruits Jack Ginnivan and ex-Bomber Massimo D’Ambrosio who shone as new faces more than Essendon’s cohort of four new men.

Brad Scott has been honest that he believes he has a Jekyll and Hyde team.

The good personality shone late for his side in Saturday’s 24-point win over Hawthorn, as youngsters like a brilliant Archie Perkins and Sam Durham kicked the Dons into gear.

That good side was beating up the Hawks in scores from stoppage – highlighted by Melbourne-esque centre bounce goals to Jye Caldwell and Jade Gresham.

The bad side was the open fields the Hawks ran through, with their half-backers in Josh Weddle, Karl Amon and ex-Don Massimo D’Ambrosio cruising through the middle of the MCG with ease for most of the game.

Zach Merrett leads the Bombers off after the win – are they better than last year? Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

It was goal accuracy that kept the Bombers in it, somehow winning the third quarter despite having four less scoring shots, 20 less disposals and seven less contested possessions.

Ask the stats boffins about the expected score and it isn’t pretty reading, Hawthorn won that count by 15 points in what was a 24-point loss in reality.

The Bombers goaled from eight of their first nine set shots as the Hawks wasted opportunities at their end.

You can’t blame Essendon for that, and so many old sages have told us over the years that good kicking is good footy – just ask Kyle Langford and his three goals from seven touches.

With Zach Reid again copping a hamstring injury, Scott had to move the magnets around and did enough with his backline to hold off the Hawks, with Nik Cox standing tall on a couple of occasions.

Cox himself thought the win was a step forward.

“We had times where we let ourselves down but our ability to just stay in the contest regardless of what was happening. In the past we would have put our heads down but it was good to see us still play the way we wanted to play,” he said.

Bombers Jye Caldwell and Jake Stringer celebrate Jade Gresham’s final-quarter goal. Picture: Michael Klein

Zach Merrett was powerful as usual with 31 sublime touches.

And Essendon’s own half-backers were able to open up the opposition plenty as Andy McGrath helped himself to 33 touches.

There were elements of the bad, Mr Hyde but the good Dr Jekyll did enough to outweigh the counterpart.

There is plenty to build on at Essendon – the young players should get better and the attacking game style looked good.

Scott will have to continue to hammer in his defensive ideas and the Bombers still need to get much better there.

But for a round 1 contest in steaming heat and in front of 73,805, Essendon did enough to send their fans home happy.

And with some hope that if the good can beat the bad, the Bombers can be improvers this year.

Jack Ginnivan impressed in his Hawthorn debut. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

SCINTILLATING GINNI

A casual onlooker in a red cap lurked outside the Essendon rooms post-match, with Collingwood CEO Craig Kelly among the crowd to congratulate his son, Bomber defender Jake, on the win.

He may have considered hopping over to the Hawthorn rooms at half-time and begging Ginnivan to come back to Collingwood, such was the brilliance of the new Hawk in the opening two quarters.

Some Bombers ribbed the ex-Pie about wearing long sleeves in 29-degree heat – while umpire Mathew Nicholls sported a cap - and Ginnivan was on fire early, with 14 touches and two goals in the opening half.

It was enough for Brisbane champion Jonathon Brown to muse that the 0-2 Pies would love Ginnivan back as they have been short on matchwinners in their own front half to start 2024.

He faded from there, but there was enough in Ginnivan’s game to show he could soon win over the Hawks faithful as a new favourite.

And D’Ambrosio will soon join him after he won a team-high 30 touches against his old side, including 15 kicks on that sweet left boot.

MATCH REPORT: Breakout Don, Stringer upstage them all at the ‘G

– Ed Bourke

Essendon’s quartet of new recruits didn’t set the world on fire but Archie Perkins starred as a pure midfielder as the Bombers worked over Hawthorn in hot conditions at the MCG.

Perkins opened up the game for the Bombers with two goals in a scintillating third term as he took the most of his opportunity to play more minutes on the ball without the injured Darcy Parish.

The 21-year-old had a team-high eight clearances and 12 tackles as he took pressure off an ultra-clean Zach Merrett and gave Essendon an edge over a Hawthorn midfield which won most inside battles in 2023.

Ben McKay had some nice moments in defence as he kept Mitchell Lewis to a solitary goal and Jade Gresham surprised fans with a booming final quarter goal from well beyond his usual range to help seal a 24-point win.

Hawthorn’s recruits caused more of a stir early, with Massimo D’Ambrosio excellent against his former side with 30 disposals and Jack Ginnivan the most influential player in the first half before he faded badly with only three possessions after the main break.

Archie Perkins was the star at the MCG on Saturday. Picture: Michael Klein

And Jake Stringer booted four goals. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

Jake Stringer was impressive as a permanent forward with 4.1 from 11 possessions as Kyle Langford also forced his way into the game with three second-half goals after being shut out early by Blake Hardwick.

Young Essendon defender Zach Reid was dealt a cruel blow after a promising pre-season which suggested he was over his run of back injuries.

The former No. 10 pick was subbed out of his ninth AFL match at halftime after he’d spent 15 minutes off the field receiving treatment on his left hamstring.

Mason Redman will receive MRO attention for a two-handed shove which made contact with Jai Newcombe’s jaw, but it is unlikely to be graded intentional after Carlton’s George Hewett escaped a ban for a similar action in opening round.

BOMBERS STRIKE SICILY

Hawks skipper James Sicily has certainly mellowed since his early days but the combination of antagonist Matt Guelfi as his direct opponent and some early targeting from the Essendon forwards exposed a chink in his mental armour.

After conceding a free kick to Guelfi which resulted in the Bombers’ first goal, Essendon players including opposite captain Zach Merrett got up in Sicily’s grill, and he retaliated by up-ending Andy McGrath.

McGrath was paid a free kick and missed, but it took Sicily a while to settle into the game after the tussle and a mistake by foot coming out of defence gifted Peter Wright a goal minutes later.

Bombers players remonstrate with James Sicily. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

OLD PALS

There’s still room for some on-field nostalgia at Hawthorn. While the new faces had the biggest impact in the forward half, two old ones also had their moments in Luke Breust and Jack Gunston.

Playing his first game in brown and gold for 573 days, Gunston linked beautifully with his triple premiership teammate and continually found himself on the end of Breust’s searching passes, but just couldn’t quite make it count with two costly set shot misses.

The only older player on the ground than the duo was Todd Goldstein, who also put a smile on fans’ faces when he effortlessly stepped inside Breust to deliver the ball inside 50 in the second term.

EXPERIMENT’S FALSE START

Blake Hardwick spent the whole summer training as a forward and was a prolific pre-season goalkicker for the Hawks, but there was still little surprise when he ran to the opposite end of the ground before the first bounce and went straight to Kyle Langford as the deepest defender.

He was giving away 10cm to Essendon’s best forward but Hardwick has been the Hawks’ top one-on-one defender for years, and kept Langford to only two touches without a shot on goal in the first half.

It’s unlikely Hardwick will venture forward any time soon, with the Hawks forced to readjust the balance of their backline due to James Blanck’s ACL injury.

Jye Caldwell tackles Hawk Jai Newcombe. Picture: Michael Klein

Scoreboard

BOMBERS 4.2, 7.3, 12.3, 17.5 (107)

HAWKS 2.7, 5.11, 9.14, 11.17 (83)

ED BOURKE’S BEST Bombers: Perkins, Merrett, Stringer, McGrath, Durham, Guelfi. Hawks: Worpel, Macdonald, Newcombe, Ginnivan, D’Ambrosio, Hardwick.

GOALS Bombers: Stringer 4, Langford 3, Wright 2, Perkins 2, Guelfi 2, Menzie, Caldwell, Durham, Gresham. Hawks: Moore 3, Ginnivan 2, Chol 2, Worpel, Gunston, Amon, Lewis.

UMPIRES Bailes, Broadbent, Nicholls, O’Gorman

INJURIES Bombers: Reid (hamstring). Hawks: nil.

CROWD 73,805 at the MCG

BOURKE’S VOTES

3. Archie Perkins (Ess)

2. Zach Merrett (Ess)

1. James Worpel (Haw)

Originally published as AFL Round 1 Essendon v Hawthorn: All the news, analysis and fallout from the Bombers’ 24-point win