Essendon have set aside 24 tumultuous hours and honoured Dustin Fletcher’s milestone with a stirring 39-point AFL win over North Melbourne.
Conversely, the convincing 15.9 (99) to 9.6 (60) win on Friday night at Etihad Stadium puts a harsh spotlight on the Kangaroos, who have been bullish about their ambitions this season.
Essendon were outstanding in their resilience and simply out-worked North, who fell away sharply in the last quarter.
The only downside for the Bombers was an ankle injury in the last term to star recruit Paul Chapman.
But the former Cat, who kicked four goals in his Essendon debut, did not appear too badly hurt.
As the Essendon players did so often last season, they ignored a major off-field distraction to dominate North.
This time it was a TV interview aired on Thursday night, where James Hird’s wife Tania blasted the AFL.
The Bombers will talk to their suspended coach next week about the issue.
It was the last thing they needed on the eve of their season-opening game.
Fletcher played his 379th game, breaking the club record and moving to outright fourth in AFL history.
He was solid as usual in defence.
Other senior players, especially Chapman, captain Jobe Watson and Brendon Goddard, led superbly as Essendon jumped North.
Essendon stunned the ‘Roos with a four-goal burst in the opening 12 minutes.
North hit the lead briefly in the second term, but Essendon quickly regained control and led by 21 points at three-quarter time
The result was sealed early in the last term when Sam Gibson’s short pass back into play went straight to Essendon opponent Jake Carlisle.
Watson goalled seconds later for a 27-point lead.
The one North player who stood out on a poor night was small forward Lindsay Thomas, who produced several game highlights with his four goals.
Adding to the Kangaroos’ woes, Todd Goldstein hurt his left shoulder in the first quarter and while he battled on, the ruckman clearly struggled with the injury for the rest of the game.
North midfielder Ben Cunnington was forced off the field in the third quarter after a heavy collision, but he returned for the last term.
Interim coach Mark Thompson revealed he told his players and staff to ignore the Hird controversy and concentrate on the game.
“It’s not the right time, we have a game on,” he said.
“We’ll let the committee and the board deal with that when they do – I think enough has been already been said from (chairman) Paul Little about what the next couple of days look like.”
Thompson, back as a senior coach for the first time since 2010, was in a buoyant mood post-match.
Asked if the Hird issue had upset him, he replied “I didn’t want to even go there to get upset.
“I had a day where I just had a lot of messages – all my friends in the world texting me to congratulate me and wish me (the) best.
“So I was busy replying to them … I was busy enough without worrying about that stuff.”
Thompson doubted Fletcher’s milestone motivated his team-mates, but said they relished being able to celebrate it with a win.
“He just told the team that all his other milestones, basically they’ve lost, so he’s really happy they’ve won one,” he said.
“I said ‘well, we’ll do the same for the 400 and the 450’.”
By contrast, North coach Brad Scott was predictably filthy about how badly his team played.
He said it was a miracle they led briefly in the second term and could not remember a game in his time as North coach where they lost contested possessions by 47.
The bad effort also caught him by surprise.
“I genuinely thought we were up for the contest, but we definitely weren’t,” he said.
“If you can’t win the ball in a contest, you’re going to have a hard day.
“And if you can’t defend well enough to get it back, you’re just never going to be able to force your way into the game.
“(That) was as disappointing a performance as I can recall.
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