Sunday's clash at Carrara had all the makings of a rout as the Eagles, who won just once last season, headed east with four fresh-faced debutants to face the red-hot Suns.
And it went to script in the first half, with the hosts piling on goals at will to lead by 62 at the main break and look set to rewrite club scoring records.
But the Eagles, sparked by fiery first-gamer Milan Murdock, responded in a 20.11 (131) to 10.12 (72) loss that will have given coach Andrew McQualter plenty of encouragement.
"Blown out of the park ... in the first 45 minutes," McQualter said.
"(Christian) Petracca played a bit of role ... it was all about the contest
"But you walk away with a real piece of resilience ... it could have got really ugly but we were up for the fight."
Like last week against Geelong, the Suns threatened to push the margin into triple figures before taking their foot off the gas.
Petracca (23 disposals, four goals) continued his dominating start to life at the Suns with three first-quarter goals while Ben King kicked five majors.
Noah Anderson collected a game-high 34 disposals to go with a goal while Joel Jeffrey (28 disposals) was among the Suns' best in defence and Touk Miller (24 touches, one goal) shrugged off two separate tags.
Alex Davies, Daniel Rioli, Jy Farrar, Jake Rogers and Ben Long all queued up for goals in an impressive 84-point first half.
But the rot stopped when they returned and Murdock (22 disposals) was largely to thank.
Recruited from the WAFL just two weeks ago, he kicked two goals and was the first to ruffle Mac Andrew's feathers after pinning him in a tackle in a plucky debut.
Jake Waterman (three goals, three behinds) had the better of Andrew while Elliot Yeo (17 disposals) tagged Petracca early before shifting forward to kick a quickfire double in the third term in his injury comeback.
Those majors fuelled a 5.4 quarter for the visitors, compared to the Suns' 3.2, that staved off the threat of Suns records falling.
Former Brisbane Lion Deven Robertson (17 touches, 12 tackles, five clearances) had eight tackles well before halftime while Harley Reid led the Eagles with 23 disposals and trademark physicality.
"Great first half, below average second," Suns coach Damien Hardwick said.
"It can happen … but they were the better side after half time.
"Their fans will look at that and see what Andrew's trying to get them to do."
18°C