Bombers bombarded: Essendon coach admits “gulf” between Dons and the best

"There's a gulf between where we are right now and where the best teams are."

That's the sentiment coming from Essendon coach Brad Scott after his side was picked apart by a professional Hawthorn outfit in a 62-point Round 1 defeat on Friday night.

In front of a 70,000-strong crowd at the MCG, Scott said his players were beaten by what they knew was coming.

"It's not as if (Hawthorn) did anything to surprise; we just failed to stop it," he said.

"We understand how much work we have to do to bridge the gap between us and the rest of the top four teams, of which last year Hawthorn were one.

"We really got beaten by what we were concerned about going into the game. The inside 50 differential (40-69) was significant, but then they were able to intercept the ball a lot more than we did.

"Our inability to stop them from transitioning out of our front half was nowhere near the level, and it wasn't like it wasn't a key focus coming into the game."

Essendon started strong against rivals Hawthorn for the first 45 minutes of the game, before a second-quarter six-goal burst by the 2025 preliminary finalists blew the Bombers away.

Scott said recent officiating changes, such as the last touch out of bounds and re-focusing on the stand rule, will grow the gap between the top and bottom sides in 2026.

"I think it is going to be very hard to contain good sides; there is no doubt about that," he said.

"The AFL talk about margin compression, well, best of luck with that when the best play teams that are young and inexperienced and perhaps struggling for one reason or another.

"But we have an opportunity to exploit those rules as well, and that will be where our focus will be."

On a positive note, Essendon finished the match with a clean bill of health, unlike for most of 2025 when the Bombers were consistently struck down by injuries.

Scott said the efforts of the Bombers' three debutants, Dyson Sharp (two goals, six disposals and four tackles), Hussien El Achkar (one goal and eight disposals) and Max Kondogiannis (15 disposals and four marks) were a shining light on a tough night.

"Dyson Sharp showed us that he is up to the level," he said.

"He is a competitor, he is strong, he makes good decisions. Kondogiannis as well, he looks young, but that is because he is 18. 'Huss' looks young and has some work to do but will look better when Isaac Kako is next to him.

"There are reasons to be optimistic, but we aren't going to stick our heads in the sand and say, 'We are just going to wait for our young guys to mature'."