THERE simply couldn't have been a better way for Essendon coach Matthew Knights to open his coaching career.

A 55-point defeat of last year's preliminary finalists, which was launched off a 71-point turnaround after the Kangaroos got the early jump, has catapulted the Bombers to second on the ladder after round one.

Knights, while clearly satisfied with the surprising result, was more impressed with the way his players managed to stay with the game plan after falling 27 points behind in the first half.

"I feel good, I feel pleased we've won the game," he said after the match at Telstra Dome on Monday afternoon.

"The Kangaroos are a pretty sharp outfit, they finished top four last year and they beat Hawthorn in the final, and you look at what Hawthorn did yesterday.

"We knew they would be well organised. They've had three or four years under Dean and they're well structured.

"We're all about developing us, the Essendon football club and the way we want to play and what we wanted to achieve, and sticking to our development as a club and a team rather than too much focus on the Kangaroos."

He was pleased with the versatility his players showed throughout the match, particularly after Scott Lucas went off with a serious knee injury.

"What was good today was our players were able to show a large degree of flexibility to be able to play in different roles even though it wasn't their best role," he said.

"At times, Bachar (Houli) played down back when he hasn't played a lot as a flexible back, at times Jason Johnson was playing deep forward.

"All credits to the players; they took on the roles once we threw them at them."

He was, however, critical of some areas of the Bombers' performance, including their level of ferocity in the first half when the Kangaroos got on top.

"It's great to have a win for the first round of the year, when you train for three or four months and you put a lot of planning and preparation in," he said.

"You at least see some development in regards to the areas we wanted to touch on, which was skills, our defensive actions and just our support for one another out on the ground.

"I think we made a step forward today but there were still times where we should have executed better, and we were also a little bit crude early, potentially with some of our tackling.

"We've just got to get that right."

All up, Knights was pleased he was able to lead the players to their first victory over North Melbourne since round 16, 2001.

"I think I was probably still running around myself when Essendon last beat the Kangaroos," he said.

"It is significant. It's good. I could easily say, new coach, new team, it doesn't really matter, but the reality is, we haven't beaten the Kangaroos for a long, long time.

"That's the reality. It was good for the club to win today under those circumstances."

The Bombers have tough ask next week as they face the reigning premiers Geelong at Telstra Dome, but even that prospect isn't one that has the new coach intimidated.

"Gary O'Donnell and I watched Geelong train up at the Gold Coast two or three months ago, and it was absolutely superb, their execution and their kicking skills," he said.

"We have an understanding of what we're playing against next week, but what these young guys and this team won't be is intimidated.

"We'll go out and play our game and play hard, and see what flows from that, just like we came to the game today not quite sure what was going to happen and what the result was going to be.

"We just knew we wanted to take the game on and play hard, and I want to give my players a licence to be creative and to make things happen."