The Eagles destroyed a mediocre Dogs outfit, transferring an impressive preseason into a great result on Sunday.
I'm reluctant to make any grand recalibration of how I see this team. It's far too early. We were dominant yes, but the Dogs were extremely disappointing. Whether they're just plain bad, or the heat/humidity hurt their Victorian sensibilities, they couldn't muster much fight from the 2nd quarter onwards.
But you can only beat who you play. We beat who we played with ease, poise, passion and power. We moved the ball quickly. We demonstrated consistent pressure and intensity and were ferocious in our tackling. We had zeal.
Lecras and Darling were simply unstoppable up forward. Both seemed to spend considerable time right in the thick of the action and really flourished. The midfield was too powerful for what should be, theoretically, a solid outfit. Up forward, the underwhelming Crameri and not much else didn't both the ever consistent Glass and E-Mac.
The new guys looked solid. I thought Bennell in particular showed something, despite Garry Lyon's rather bitter decision to highlight every little thing he did wrong on Footy Classified. Really Garry?
Ellis and Yeo both probably did decent enough jobs, although as I was sitting in the clouds I didn't really notice them. Sheed, as expected, was green vested.
Overall, it was a demolition. It seems the team has restored a sense of pride in their play and the crowd reacted accordingly.
Despite this, the panel shows on Monday night have surely gone too early in proclaiming us 'Top 4 chances' and certainties for the top 8. It was 1 game, at home, against the Dogs. We won't really know the level of our improvement until rounds 4 to 7, where we play the Cats and Blues away and face the Power and Dockers at home.
But until then, interesting games against the Demons and Saints await.
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