Even Essendon couldn't predict with any confidence just how things would go for the club this year. A day or so after an emotion-charged season-opening victory, they still can't. And mightn't for some time yet.
The Bombers are in previously uncharted waters, a group of 10 players, six of whom played in Saturday night's win over Hawthorn, coming off a year-long break, and attempting to gel with as many with whom they hadn't played previously.
The raw emotion that fuelled the impressive win over the Hawks won't remain at such feverish levels. The lack of match hardening of those returning from suspension may later on start taking a significant toll. The "getting to know you" stage may leave the Bombers short of the sort of synergy enjoyed by those teams who have played together for years.
Essendon can't necessarily do much about any of that. What they can do is at least now ponder some concrete evidence of how the new look set-up can work at its best. And you'd have to already say, that's pretty impressively.
Midfield depth, forward potency and leg speed are three areas in which Essendon have been in very short supply for a number of years now, going back before the supplements scandal even began. Finally, all appear to have been addressed effectively.
The midfield numbers, particularly late in the game, were revealing. What they showed that the on-ball depth is now sufficient enough that the same players who have had to carry the Bombers' load for too long were kept fresh enough to inflict some serious damage when it counted most.
Essendon lost both the overall and centre clearance count on Saturday night. But in the critical last quarter, the Dons won the stoppages 8-4 and the centre takeaways 6-2.
And their three leading possession-getters in the final term were Dyson Heppell, Jobe Watson and Brendon Goddard, all of whom might have previously been going up and down on the one spot by the end, but against the Hawks were still going strong thanks to the load being shared with the likes of Zach Merrett, Darcy Parish, Travis Colyer, David Zaharakis, Brent Stanton and Kyle Langford.
Of course, midfield depth counts for little if you can't convert your chances, a perennial problem for the Bombers. But perhaps that's about to change, too.
Essendon's 17.14 (117) against the Hawks was their highest score since round eight in 2015, 37 games previously. It came despite the Dons having three fewer forward entries than their opponent.
For the first time in a long time, the Bombers weren't overly-reliant of Joe Daniher to do the bulk of the goalkicking. He finished with three and played well. His fellow key forward Cale Hooker wasn't nearly as conspicuous, but he finished with three, too.
Orazio Fantasia's opportunism and crumbing capacity at the feet of the big men was crucial. He finished with four. And then there were those midfielders again, now plentiful enough to have longer spells near goal, Heppell and Stanton sharing five goals, Zaharakis and ruckman Shaun McKernan chipping in on the scoreboard as well.
That's not the end of the forward armoury, either. Fantasia's fellow smalls Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Josh Green didn't hit the scoreboard, but between them had five goal assists, the only two players on the ground with more than one.
Bomber coach John Worsfold has further options in attack as well via the now plentiful midfield and talls like James Stewart and one or two of McKernan and ruck pair Matthew Leuenberger and Tom Bellchambers (when the latter two are fit).That's not to mention a couple of young guns in Aaron Francis and (later this season) Jayden Laverde.
And pace? Well, Essendon may still be beaten for leg speed by one or two rivals, but not too many, and certainly not Hawthorn on Saturday night, with the likes of Fantasia, McDonald-Tipungwuti, Green, Colyer and newcomer Andrew McGrath able to leave the opposition in their wake on enough occasions to make upcoming rivals take note.
Essendon's defensive structure held firm against the Hawks, too, with Michael Hurley and Patrick Ambrose solid, James Kelly and Goddard sweeping across half-back, and Mark Baguley turning in a very solid game after what had been by his standards, a not-overly impressive pre-season.
First impressions of a rebuilt Essendon are certainly favourable. And based even on one game, the Bombers are going to go in favourite in at least their next two games - against Brisbane and Carlton.
Those factors cited earlier, especially that lack of match conditioning, are real. But similarly, momentum counts for plenty in today's game. And Essendon appear to have begun 2017 with a decent head of steam up. Perhaps they can turn that into a buffer solid enough to withstand the impact of the grind kicking in.
In any case, Worsfold and his coaching staff at least now are playing with a deck of cards fully-stacked. And Saturday night may have shown us our first glimpse that with those aces back in the pack and the value of those supposed lesser cards improved as a result, the Dons have some decent hands to play this new season.
