• Defiant Malthouse won't 'turn up the toes' after Carlton loss
• Nine things we learned from round six
• Fantasy form watch: This week's pig and Presti
• How did your team's players fare in this weekend's state leagues?

ADAM Simpson has a couple of character traits that come in handy for the white-hot world of AFL coaching. He is amiable and even-tempered. 

But what does get him riled, or least did until about 7pm Sunday, was the suggestion that his West Coast Eagles were the "flat-track bullies" of the competition.

The suggestion had merit last year, what with the Eagles' propensity to bash around the teams below them but fall well short of those that made the finals. And the formline continued through the first five games of this year – easy wins over Carlton, the Brisbane Lions and Greater Western Sydney and losses to the Western Bulldogs and Fremantle.

But then came Sunday evening in what was clearly the best win of the 28-game Simpson era, a 10-point win over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. The Power came hard at the Eagles through the last quarter and victory seemed inevitable, but hard running both ways and some clinical finishing gave West Coast a most deserved win.

Luke Shuey kicked the sealer with just seconds to go, but the win was typified with an earlier goal in the final term. It was kicked by Jamie Cripps but set up with some fearless handball and pace through the midfield. Dare it be said, West Coast borrowed from the Port Adelaide recipe book of running football to take it to the Power.

So at the quarter mark of the season, the Eagles find themselves perched second on the ladder, behind only their rampant cross-town rivals Fremantle. It is an excellent achievement to date, given the obituary writers didn't waste any time pre-season, given the season-ending knee injuries to key defenders Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown.

Also missing from the side on Sunday were walk-up best 22 members Scott Selwood, Jack Darling, Matt Rosa and (arguably) Xavier Ellis.

It speaks of great coaching and player development from Simpson and his team to go to one of the most hostile venues in the competition and get the win, although if there was a stand-out win by West Coast last year, it was beating Adelaide at the same venue.

West Coast's three wins on the trot matches Simpson's best win streak to date. And the opportunity is there for the Eagles to cement themselves in the top eight with three likely winnable games to come next – Gold Coast and Geelong at home, sandwiched by St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.

It is far too early to contemplate a pair of home preliminary finals in Western Australia on the penultimate weekend of the season. But this is shaping as the wildest and wackiest season in years and the Eagles are in it up to their necks.

Blues burn but it's bravo, Brisbane Lions

Alastair Clarkson and Damien Hardwick likely breathed collective sighs of relief as Carlton crashed to another defeat, this time by 10 points to the Brisbane Lions.

It means another week of the spotlight shining firmly on Ikon Park rather than Punt Road and Waverley Park, where perhaps the heat should instead be felt.

The most damning indictment on the Blues on Sunday was a period during the third and last quarters where the Lions had 10 inside-50 entries in a row, which, in game-time, translated to 18 minutes of general play.

It's a stat that is an indictment on the Blues and calls into question all matter of issues – leadership, gameplan and fitness. Sadly for Mick Malthouse, they're the departments that fall under his watch and best explains why the blowtorch will be on the Blues yet again this week.

Poor Marc Murphy: the game was barely finished and a media call was already in place for the Blues skipper for Monday morning. Any guess what questions one, two and three will be?

But to dwell on the Blues any further would be unfair to the Lions for whom the understatement of the week was that this was a much-needed win.

It was the first time this season that the Lions got a major contribution from prized Geelong recruit Allen Christensen, whose 15 second-half touches were a key factor behind the Lions' comeback. Dayne Beams has been sound all season, but also found another gear to get his first win in his new colours.

But what will likely please coach Justin Leppitsch was the form of his bookends. On the same day Lions chief executive Greg Swann (who would have really enjoyed the win) said the Lions were on the hunt for key position personnel at both ends, Harris Andrews took seven marks and looked an AFL-calibre key defender for the first time in his four games, while Daniel McStay kicked four goals.

The Lions are not out of the woods by any stretch and badly need some tall reinforcements, but it was around this time of last year that they started to find some form and confidence. Beating the Blues on the road, as hapless as they are, might yet be the start of something.

Myth busting, AFL style

Two games and five hours of footy on Saturday served to smash a couple of footy myths and question some previously-held assumptions.

Let's start with the myths.

Myth one: 55 points is a bridge too far

In this era of structures, tempo footy and playing men behind the ball, it is harder than ever for a team to get a run-on and easier to stop one, particularly if the two teams are of similar ability.
 
Which is what made St Kilda's comeback to beat the Bulldogs so great. A change in effort and attitude played a big part; better work around the clearances and an apparent willingness to really run harder was the key.
 
Perhaps the Dogs aren’t at the advanced stage where the right mechanisms kick in when the opposition kicks two or three on the trot. The Dockers and the Swans are two examples that come to mind of clubs who can flick a switch and become difficult to score against.
 
Most of the time, there is a will for teams to get back into the game when they're nine goals behind. And as the Saints showed on the weekend, there is a way as well.

Myth two: It is hard to win the week after playing in Perth

In hindsight, we should have cut Greater Western Sydney some slack. Last week's game against West Coast, in which the Giants kicked just one goal after quarter-time, was their fifth game outside Sydney on the trot. Their two home games before that played at their second home ground in Canberra.
 
Perhaps we understate the value of sleeping in one's own bed the night before a game, but in any event it was the Giants who had the legs and ran over the top of the Hawks in the final quarter in emphatic and entertaining fashion.
 
In this era, playing in Perth – particularly with seven days to prepare – shouldn't be the death sentence it has become. Whatever the Giants did to prepare for the Hawks should become a template and be a source of encouragement.

Assumption one: The Giants will lose one or more of their emerging midfielders at the end of the season.

The jungle drums have been beating for some time. Dylan Shiel to Carlton. Adam Treloar to Collingwood or St Kilda. Stephen Coniglio back to one of the West Australian teams.
 
But what if they all decided to stay. And more to the point, why would they want to leave?
 
These young men started their football journeys together at the Giants and there has to be some consideration now for them to stick together, perhaps sacrifice just a little of what they might get on the open market and strive to win a premiership together some time in the future.
 
Coming off the best win in the fledgling club's history, these players have to surely be thinking that whatever they might be offered elsewhere, success is likely closer at hand should they choose to remain with the Giants.
 
A fat contract from the cashed-up Magpies might be hard to turn away. But can anyone really say at this stage that the Blues, Saints or Eagles are closer to a flag that than the Giants? The answer to that is a categorical 'no', which is why the next few weeks will be fascinating.
 
GWS ruckman Shane Mumford – another reason why you'd want to stay if you were a Giants midfielder – forecast on Sunday that a few signatures will soon be forthcoming. Credit to the Giants if they can keep the wolves at bay, and it is becoming a real possibility that they will.

Assumption two: Melbourne has improved

This column watched Melbourne dismantle Gold Coast in round one and was all over the red and the blue. But as we have come to learn, that afternoon might have been as much about the failings of the Suns as anything else.
 
The other win? Over Richmond, which is looking less an accomplishment by the week.
 
The past fortnight has been a case of same old, same old for the Demons. Six goals against Fremantle, seven against the Sydney Swans, both times at home on the MCG. Next up is Hawthorn, down on form, but angry and an MCG specialist all the same.
 
Paul Roos has worked wonders with the backline and the midfield shows promise. But Jesse Hogan and Chris Dawes aren’t delivering at the same level and that needs to change for Melbourne to take that next step.

Implosion watch

Luke Beveridge played four games for St Kilda in 1999, but thankfully, he was watching from the Waverley Park grandstand the day his teammates jumped to a 63-point lead against Hawthorn, and then lost.

It was the greatest comeback in League history at the time and Saints coach Tim Watson offered the memorable line afterwards when he said of his players that they played with "heads the size of boarding school puddings".

Hawthorn's comeback was surpassed two years later when Essendon spotted North Melbourne a 69-point lead at the MCG and fought back to win by 12 points. What was interesting about both the St Kilda and North Melbourne fadeouts was that both clubs were less than two seasons removed from playing in a Grand Final and in the case of the Kangaroos, winning one.

Both those sides were in finals contention before their respective fadeouts and both ended up comfortably missing out on playing that September. The table below illustrates precisely how the bottom fell out of their seasons after their awful fadeouts.

TEAMOPPONENTLEADTIMELOSING MARGINYEARWIN-LOSS BEFOREWIN-LOSS AFTERFINALS
North MelbourneEssendon69Q2, 10 mins1220018-71-6No
St KildaHawthorn63Q2, 5 mins1319997-43-8No
St KildaCollingwood60Q2, 27 mins719705-49-4Yes
GeelongHawthorn56Q2, 28 mins219893-213-4Yes
Western BulldogsSt Kilda55Q3, 3 mins720154-1??

Beveridge's Bulldogs are at a different stage of their development. They're clearly on the way up and Saturday's loss to St Kilda should eventually be remembered as a painful lesson learned and not the beginning of the end.

Instead, the Bulldogs should take heed from Geelong in 1989, which only knew how to play football one way – ahead of the ball – and was gradually picked apart by Hawthorn after leading by 56 points.

As the table also indicates they were able to build nicely from there, making that year's Grand Final and three more in the five seasons that followed. The Cats never died wondering, a trait that marked their football and some of the dash and dare that marked Geelong at the time can be seen in the Western Bulldogs of now.

But there has to be a Plan B, but the feeling here is that Beveridge is smart enough to know it and to coach it.

QUESTION TIME

 

Ashley Browne: You'd think Hodge and Lewis would keep their heads down this week around the Ricoh Centre and stay away from the coach in particular. They were key absences against the Giants on Saturday, with Hodge's leadership and Lewis's ball-winning abilities noticeably missing. It's difficult to conceive the Hawks first blowing a five-goal lead and then twice giving up three-goal leads with them in the side, although a worrying trait for Hawthorn this year in its three defeats so far has been an inability to prevent their opponents from getting a run-on. The Hawks said all summer they would need to improve by 10-15 per cent to contend for the flag again this year, but the evidence after six games is that only Isaac Smith and Jon Ceglar appear to have improved. A few are treading water and some appear to have gone backwards.

AB: The combination of his feet leaving the ground and contact to Barlow's head means trouble for Baguley. He will miss at last a week.

AB: Freo had a tough start, but that's done with now. Looking at the draw from here, it is difficult to see the Dockers dropping too many games from here. Adelaide away in round 10 will be tough and Hawthorn in Tassie will be close, but even the Port game you mentioned is in round 23, by which time the Dockers may have a top-two berth locked away and if that's the case Ross Lyon will almost certainly send a weakened team to Adelaide, as he did against the Saints at the end of 2013. I expect a 19-3 record for the Dockers come the finals and right now, they're my tip for the flag.

AB: Higgins has been a great pick up for North. He appears injury free and is playing with poise and confidence. Waite is, well, Waite. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But he commands attention from the opposition, although on Saturday it was Lindsay Thomas with five goals, Higgins (three) and Brent Harvey (two) who did most of the damage.