Flag fancy Kiewa-Sandy Creek made the most of a severely undermanned Yackandandah to notch a workmanlike 28-point victory under lights at Coulston Park on Saturday night.
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In a replay of last year's second semi-final, the Hawks booted three goals to one in the opening term and were never seriously challenged for the remainder of the match, winning 12.6 (78) to 7.8 (50).
Both sides are once again expected to progress deep into September but were well below full-strength for their season opener.
The Roos went into the clash missing key forward Nick Donaghey alongside previous best and fairest winner Josh Garland, Danny Atwell and Angus Lingham.
They were also dealt an early blow when man mountain Zack Leitch hobbled off with a hamstring injury during the first term.
The loss of Leitch robbed the Roos of a focal point in attack with the Hawks' defence dominating the aerial battles in the absence of the visitors' two main marking targets in Leitch and Donaghey.
The Hawks were also missing several players from last year's losing grand final side including versatile tall Mitch Paton, alongside Caleb Beattie and Jordyn Croucher who were sidelined with injury.
Both sides also unveiled several new recruits after landing their fair share of signings over the off-season.
Former Barnawartha coach Mitch Exton alongside Jordan Eaton, Bailey Annett, Cam Newbold, Ethan Roach, Sam McKenzie were all new faces for the Roos.
The Hawks also had plenty of new additions to last year's grand final side including prized recruit Alex Daly alongside Lachie Brodie, Jamie Paul, Tim Hallinan, Nick Lockhart, Connor Wilson, Jason Bartel and Nathan Still.
New Hawks coach Zac Fulford who replaced Jack Neil over the off-season said it was satisfying to start the season with a win but was mindful the opposition were missing plenty of quality players.
"There was a fair bit of pressure early as you would expect in round one," Fulford said.
"The conditions were a bit slippery but I think at different stages we had our moments and in the first-half the opposition certainly had theirs where both sides moved the footy OK.
"I thought we wore them down over the course of the four-quarters.
"Probably our ability to run the game out, to keep working and implementing the things we have been working on over the summer was the most pleasing aspect of the win.
"We feel like we did the work over the off-season and we were able to heavily rotate through the midfield to keep that intensity level around the footy.
"That level of pressure around the footy is something that we are working on.
"We are mindful the opposition were well below full-strength and the early injury to Leitch presented them with challenges in finding a marking target inside 50m.
"So losing Leitch early definitely hurt because he was providing that target early on.
"I thought at different stages Yack did some really good things and played pretty well and kicked a couple of goals late in the match too.
"They certainly didn't throw the towel in and battled hard considering the quality of the players they had missing."
Former Hawk Paul impressed in his return to Coulston Park for the first time since 2018 after a stint in Western Australia in the Perth Football League.
He was narrowly shaded for best on ground honours by Nic Carney who dominated in defence in the absence of Donaghey and Leitch.
Paul and Nathan Vogel combined for six of the Hawks' 12 majors with Hallinan, Jason Bartel and Josh Hicks also damaging.
Logan Martin was a tower of strength at centre-half back for the Roos and enhanced his growing reputation as one of the best intercept defenders in the competition.
Martin, who is the nephew of Morris medallist Steve Murphy, is also one of the best contested marks in the league.
Beechworth recruit Eaton was also productive for the Roos while Connor Marshall, Bailey Dale, Johann Jarratt and Jim Lawson battled hard for the visitors.
The Hawks now travel to face reigning premier Chiltern in an early season heavyweight clash with the pair playing off in the past two deciders.
Yackandandah host Beechworth who met in last year's qualifying final which the Roos won by more than 10 goals.
