WEST COAST, Port Adelaide, Fremantle. Back in February, no-one would have raised an eyebrow if you’d said these three teams would make up the top four behind the mighty Cats.

Yet five rounds into the 2008 season, reality has set in, and these proud clubs find themselves struggling at the wrong end of the premiership ladder with just one win each.

The burning question for each set of supporters is ‘can my team still make the eight’?

Based on current form, the short answer is that the ‘Western Front’ is out - and the Power is in.

Port was the last of the trio to actually put one in the win column – against West Coast at Subiaco on Sunday - but the South Australians clearly have the biggest upside.

There were always going to be a few issues to be dealt with after last year's historic Grand Final defeat – Geelong demolished the Power by 119 points, if you need reminding – but the personnel that got Port Adelaide there in the first place remains largely intact.

Despite losing to three of last season’s finalists in the opening four rounds – including the premiers – the Power playing group has been lambasted for having too many ‘outside’ midfielders.

The game hasn’t changed that much since last season; these guys haven’t gotten softer over summer and can still get the job done.

But we shouldn’t let one win gloss over the cracks that have been apparent in Port Adelaide’s first month.

NAB Rising Star winner Danyle Pearce has been in poor form and didn’t make the trip to Perth after being dropped. Important forwards Brad Ebert and Justin Westhoff were both lucky to have kept their spots after appearing desperately low on confidence leading into the match. Skipper Warren Tredrea is yet to convince the football world he is the same player that earned four All-Australian nods before he was struck down by a debilitating knee injury.

The query over the captain remains, but the two young guns showed they were fighting their way out of their funk in Perth. Ebert ended up with four goals and Westhoff with one; both had a bit of luck along the way, but sometimes that’s all you need.

The Cornes and Burgoyne duos are still pure class, and they have enough developing talent coming through behind them to ensure the Power will climb the ladder.

Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan form one of the most imposing ruck tandems in the league and, oh, do you think the Tigers wouldn’t like to have David Rodan back?

On the other side of the equation, West Coast has defied the egalitarian AFL system to contest 16 of the last 18 finals series, but the sad truth is that we are witnessing the downfall of the current Eagle empire.

They look rudderless without Chris Judd and Ben Cousins, and their remaining midfielders – Daniel Kerr in particular – are struggling under the weight of greater responsibility and expectation. 

A Rolls Royce midfield has patched over the cracks in a misfiring forward line for a lot of years.

West Coast hasn’t had a focal point up forward since Scotty Cummings kicked 95 goals way back in 1999, and you’ve to go right back to the halcyon days of current assistant coach Peter Sumich back in ’91 for a 100-goal season from an Eagle forward.

Pre-season expectations were rightfully derived from their stellar history, but the Eagles are due for a lull.

A late fightback on Sunday against the Power disguised the fact that they were well beaten on their home turf, and could have easily have lost by 10 goals.

The West Coast spirit that we have come to respect was just not present in the second and third quarters when it really mattered.

That’s not to say that the Eagles are bereft of hope; far from it. Midfielder Chris Masten is an absolute gun in the making, while Ben McKinley is the future of the forward line. Promising onballer Brad Ebert, who didn’t play on Sunday, could well play 200 games for the club.

As for Fremantle, well, it’s hard not to go in with both slippers on Western Australia’s other club at this point. The Dockers are yet to even make a Grand Final despite being in the competition for 13 years, while fellow expansion teams Adelaide, West Coast and Port Adelaide delivered five flags between them in their first 10 years in existence.

The purple crew teases with their undoubted talent on paper, but frustrates their fans and neutral observers alike with their roller-coaster performances.

Plenty of good money went into bookmakers’ pockets when the unheralded Tigers traveled to ‘Fortress Subiaco’ in round four and came away with a win, thanks in no small part to an insipid Fremantle performance.

An active trading policy must be close to being exposed as ill-advised at this point. Chris Tarrant, Kepler Bradley, Mark Johnson and Dean Solomon are yet to prove their worth.

Docker youngsters like Rhys Palmer, Robert Warnock, Garrick Ibbotson, Clayton Hinkley, Brock O’Brien and Chris Mayne must be allowed to show the 'way to go' from here on.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.