Last year's two best teams played out another heartstopper at Telstra Stadium on Saturday night, with the Eagles repeating the dose on Paul Roos' men when they clung on to win by the smallest possible margin.
And with the Swans having made slow starts in recent seasons, Kennelly said the round two showdown with the Tigers at the MCG could set his side on the right path.
"It's a big game for us this week and we want to get on top obviously early and start early and that's something we're probably going to focus really hard on at training," Kennelly said.
"(We should) just get back to playing the way we played in the second half (against West Coast) … real simple, basic football. There's no magic to it, and there's no magic to us playing in the Grand Final in the last two years.
"It's one-on-one football and we just didn't do it in the first half."
While the stakes weren't nearly as high in Saturday's season opener as they were when the two teams previously met, Kennelly saw the similarities between the matches and rued his side's slow start.
Like the 2006 decider, the Swans gave West Coast a huge start and tried to reel them in – only to fall agonisingly short.
The dashing defender believed his side should have capitalised on its chance to down the Eagles, given the reigning champs were missing significant manpower.
"We played terrible, it's as simple as that," Kennelly said.
"They were missing four-to-five of their better players and we just didn't turn up to play again in that first half, like the grand final, I suppose."
"We didn't do anything special in the second half, we just kind of played competitive football and nearly turned it around."
Kennelly said his team had played "un-Sydney like" football early in their season opener. But while disappointed with the result, he knows 2007 has just begun.
"Look, it's not the end of the world," Kennelly said.
"We've missed an opportunity to get four points and you don't want to come round 22 and it costs you.
"It's definitely an opportunity missed … it's something that we're not happy about but I'm sure we'll turn it around. We have done in the past and I'm sure we'll do it again."
