In reality, it started the season looking unstoppable.
Guided by a seven-goal performance from Northern Territory goal-kicking machine Darren Ewing, Tongala bolted out of the gates 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 winner Nick Jamieson.
Coby McCarthy slotted four, while Cam Ilett continued to his dominance since arriving at 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,” Souter 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 recruits’ performances, 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,” he said.
“'Boof’ (Ewing) gave us a great target up forward and we knew the quality of player Nick (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 wouldn'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.”
An 11-goal-to-three second half sealed the 17.10 (112) to 7.5 (47) win for the Blues.
For the Purples it was Liam Evans (three goals), Alex Hicks and Brodie Ross (two apiece) doing all of the scoring, with Ryan Butler and Tom Nihill also starting the season in form.
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