In reality, the Blues started the Murray Football League season looking unstoppable.
Guided by a seven-goal performance from Northern Territory goalkicking machine Darren Ewing, Tongala bolted out of the gates on Saturday with a 65-point win over 2019 grand final nemesis Nathalia.
Returning ruckman Jack Monigatti was one of his club's best, as was former Footscray VFL best and fairest Nicholas Jamieson.
Coby McCarthy slotted four, while Cameron Ilett continued to his dominance since arriving in Tongala.
Blues coach Jordan Souter said while he was ecstatic to see such a strong start to the season, there was a lot left to learn for his playing group.
“It definitely gives us a lot of confidence going into the season ahead,” he said.
“We kicked four or five goals late in the game, so it was a lot closer than the result shows. But it's been a long time since our club has been able to beat them, so that plays a big role in building your confidence.
“At the same time, it's round one, and while we were incredibly happy with the outcome in the game, we know we can't get ahead of ourselves based off one result.
“They were missing a few players and will get closer to full strength as the season goes on, but we still take a lot out of the game.
“It was probably the result we needed to get.”
Souter spoke highly of his new recruits’ performances in the game, especially the returning Monigatti, but said a full team performance had led to the result.
“Jack gave us a hard edge around the ground as well as in the ruck,” Souter said.
“Boof (Ewing) gave us a great target up forward, and we knew the quality of player Nic (Jamieson) was going to be.
“It was probably hard to pick a best for us. Everyone played well and did their bit, and that's all you can ask for.”
But Souter said his side won't be this strong on paper every week.
“We're not always going to have access to guys like Jack, Cam or Boof,” he said.
“As a playing group we know in the weeks they aren't available to play, we are going to have to lift as a side.
“They bring a lot of class to the side, but we also back our players to produce at their best every week irrelevant of who is in the team.”
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