'There were good signs': Positives for Eagles in opening-round loss

The reigning premiers defeated the Eagles 14.11 (95) to 11.6 (72) at Friendly Societies' Park in a rematch of the 2023 Hampden league decider.

"Round one's a funny one, you set your sights on it through the pre-season but in the scheme of things, context of the year it's actually quite insignificant," Vardy told The Standard.

"Coming up against last year's premiers and obviously a side that knocked us off, it adds a little bit more to it which adds a little bit more pressure and probably a little bit more anxiety to it but there were good signs.

"We let the game get away from us in the third quarter but we fought back in the last so there's a lot of learnings to take away from it but I was just proud of the boys didn't roll over and let it get blown out. There was fight in the dog."

Scoring was significantly heavier at one end of the ground due to the wind.

The Roosters flew out to a 26-7 lead at the first change but the Eagles clawed back to trail 41-37 at half-time.

A 50-3 third term in favour of the Roosters left the Eagles with too big a mountain to climb however they outscored the reigning premiers 32-4 in the fourth quarter.

Roosters co-captain and key forward Shannon Beks was dominant in front of goals for the home side, slotting five goals after kicking four against Koroit in the Good Friday clash.

Teammate Josh Saunders was also influential while Eagles defender Angus Noske was impressive.

"I thought Angus Noske down back did a really good job, he crossed from Hamilton last year and was probably a little bit of a 'Mr fix it', didn't really have a settled position, played in the ruck at times while I was injured," Vardy said.

"Then a couple of practice matches he played at centre-half-back and looks really, really comfortable and gave him the first crack at Sam Kelly today and thought he did an awesome job."

Vardy pinpointed some areas his side would look to improve on.

"We were probably a little bit fumbly around the stoppages, especially early," he said.

"At times we looked out and fumbles brought the pressure on. And then just connection inside 50 I thought we had our fair share of the footy going inside forward 50 we just weren't able to capitalise on it there.

"Their spare was really influential on the game so it's probably just learning how to combat that."

Former AFL midfielder Michael Barlow, who is North Melbourne's head of player development, also played well in his first game for the Eagles since the 2019 grand final.

"He (Barlow) pretty much approached us and said - because he hasn't played for a year or two - said I'm too fit not to play anywhere," Vardy said.

"So we'll get him when it suits North Melbourne's fixture but obviously he's a class at the top level and he's getting on a little bit but he still looked like he had plenty of footy left in him."