Coach Brad Scott says Essendon are under no illusions how far off the AFL's best they remain after their defence was shown up in a deflating opening loss to Hawthorn.

Scott was left to pick up the pieces after Hawthorn cantered to a 21.19 (145) to 13.5 (83) victory at the MCG on Friday night.

"Our inability to stop them transitioning out of our front half was just nowhere near the level," Scott said.

"And it's not as if that wasn't a key focus coming into the game

"I don't think anyone's under any illusions we've got a big gap to bridge -- but we got a good lesson tonight."

The Bombers had been concerned about Hawthorn's intercept game - a justified concern as the Hawks' defence picked off turnovers at will.

But Essendon's lack of forward pressure and inability to defend transition proved the difference.

"It was our inability to defend against a very good kicking side and a very good running side," Scott said.

"It's not as if they did anything that surprised us. It was just our inability to stop it."

Scott worried the AFL's new rules could lead to more one-sided blowouts.

"It's going to be very, very hard to contain very good sides. There's no doubt about that," he said.

"Is that good for the game? Probably.

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

"But we've got an opportunity to exploit those rules as well."

The Bombers at least escaped with a clean bill of health and Zach Reid, Darcy Parish, Ben McKay and Jye Caldwell, who had injury-hit seasons in 2025, got through unscathed.

Scott took heart from promising debuts from Dyson Sharp (two goals) and Max Kondogiannis (15 disposals) in particular.

Scott was confident the Bombers could get to work to address some of their issues before facing Port Adelaide away next Sunday.

"There are reasons to be optimistic, but we're not sticking our head in the sand and just saying 'we're just going to wait for our young players to mature'," Scott said.

"Because I always maintain that we've got capability, even last year with all our injuries. We've just got to execute better than we are at the moment, pretty quickly.

"Frustrating night tonight, but the positives are it looks like our group is is resilient.

"They've had a very good preparation in terms of the pre-season, but there's a gulf between where we are right now and where the best teams are."