Essendon may have won their most stirring victory under John Worsfold, but the Bombers' coach believes his outfit can continue to get better as players old and new alike become more familiar with each other.
"We're going to build on that," Worsfold said after Essendon's 25-point win at the MCG. "This group are going to build a lot more chemistry and understanding, which will mean they'll keep getting better if they're prepared to work hard."
And Worsfold won't shy away from the emotion driving the victory as six of the players suspended for the 2016 season by the Court of Arbitration for Sport came back to the fold.
"We're not trying to keep a lid on anything other than the way we want to play," he said. "We've done it pretty well tonight and we're accountable to try to match that week in, week out and get better.
"It was a pretty special night - for us internally, with the players and the coaches and how hard we've worked over the past 18 months, emotional for the fans.
"To have 60,000 members signed before the season started is enormous for what the club's been through, and that's probably the thing that's holding the club strong at the moment. It was phenomenal, spine-tingling stuff by our members and supporters ??? and I think they go home with big smiles on their faces."
The club marked the first game of the new season with a supporter march from Federation Square to the MCG pre-game, with fans taking part in a symbolic waving of scarves and jackets as the team ran on to the ground.
Worsfold was most pleased by his side's resilience after Hawthorn had dominated the second quarter, holding a 13-point lead early in the third term, Essendon promptly kicking eight of the next nine goals.
"That middle 30 or 40-minute period was tough and Hawthorn got the ascendancy ??? but they never got too far from us, and they had to work really hard for their opportunities," he said.
"Our boys just kept coming at them, which was great, and then to work back into the lead and run away with that was awesome."
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said Essendon's win was founded on their advantage in both uncontested possession and uncontested marks, but said his side still had their chances to win.
"They controlled the ball," he said. "Particularly early in the season, the rule of thumb for me is if a team wins uncontested marks by that margin you're going to be in some trouble. But having said that, strangely enough we had our chances.
"We kicked 12.19 and some of those goals I'm thinking we usually nail. But that's poor football. We had more inside 50s, we had the ball in our half more, we had more scoring shots than Essendon, yet the flow of the game, you wouldn't have thought Hawthorn were controlling the game, Essendon did, and mainly that was because they forced us to defend by controlling the ball better."
Clarkson said the quiet evenings from some of his biggest stars, particularly in attack, hadn't helped the cause.
"Our forward entries were a little bit rough, a little bit haphazard, and we found it hard to get the ball to our dangerous forwards like Gunston, Puopolo, Rioli, Breust ??? none of those guys had significant influences on this contest, when usually that's a significant strength of ours."
