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WE NEEDED a Sunday afternoon of football like that.

After a dreadful Saturday in which the average winning margin in the five games was a fraction under 73 points, we got a Sunday afternoon during which you could barely leave your seat.

Fremantle got out to its customary fast-start but barely held off the equally fast-finishing Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

Then at the MCG, Richmond and Collingwood played the best game between them in recent memory, with the Tigers getting home by five points.

And then came the shocker at the Gabba where the Lions underlined their rapid improvement and Port Adelaide entered the conversation for the most disappointing team of the season so far.

Rope-a-dope Dockers

There is becoming a pattern to the 2015 Dockers. Their first quarters have been outstanding and in every case this year, good enough to secure the win, but not without, like Muhammad Ali against George Foreman during the Rumble in the Jungle, giving their opponents some inkling that they could win the game.

Freo just wouldn't let the Bulldogs get their hands on the ball early and at one stage midway through the first term, they had 87 disposals to 37.

But the dominance ended at quarter-time and the Bulldogs patiently reeled them in, breaking level entering time-on in the final term before two late Fremantle goals sealed the win.

It would have been an even more famous triumph for the Dogs than the win in Sydney a fortnight ago and came on the back of some remarkably straight kicking in general and seven goals from Tory Dickson.

Nat Fyfe and Matthew Pavlich were the heroes for Fremantle (aren’t they always?) with three goals each and Fyfe in particular was brilliant early and valiant late. He should get the three votes for another best on ground performance but the talking point around the water cooler on Monday morning will be his report for tripping Koby Stevens.

He won't be Brownlow ineligible as a result; more than likely he will be $1000 poorer, but two more repeat offences this year and he will miss a game and be would lose his Brownlow eligibility.

And here's one for the football theorists. Aaron Sandilands had 50 hit-outs for the match, whereas Ayce Cordy and Tom Boyd had three apiece. After quarter-time, the Bulldogs just gave up trying to compete with the Freo giant in the air, loading up instead with the extra runner at ground level and it nearly worked.

And finally a word on the crowd. The futbol crowd will point to the 18,000 attendance as proof the A-League grand final should have been played at Etihad. But after a summer spent offering every junior footballer a free soccer ball if they handed in their football, and then brazenly declaring that their plan is to replace the AFL as the no.1 sport in the country, they never offered a cogent reason why the Bulldogs and the AFL should have then handed them the use of Etihad.

The Bulldogs needed this game played at their true home ground, and their barnstorming second half, with their home crowd riding them home, would likely not have happened had the game been played in Geelong and certainly not at Domain Stadium.

Punt Road 1, Hoddle Street 0

This was a win to cherish for the Tigers. They were under the pump all week – saved from the blowtorch only by the ineptitude of the team in navy blue a couple of suburbs away.

The lead changed 10 times all afternoon in a pulsating affair, but what was great for the Tigers was that their leaders stood up late. Brett Deledio pushed forward in the last quarter and kicked two goals. Trent Cotchin was everywhere with 11 disposals in the final stanza.

But it was a day of excitement for Richmond. Liam McBean was unveiled to the impatient Tiger fans and he presented well, particularly in the first half. He and Ty Vickery stayed deep and allowed Jack Riewoldt to roam and the Tiger talisman was great with four goals.

Maybe it needs a week of public teeth gnashing to spark the Tigers. Perhaps the Blues should take note. Tiger defender Troy Chaplin spoke with passion and emotion about the season to date on Monday and Richmond responded with its best win of the season.

Now 3-4, the Tigers are just a game out of the eight, but they return to the scene of the crime next week – Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval. They'll go there with a degree of confidence and not lacking for motivation.

Roar factor

Justin Leppitsch is a pretty good coach. A fortnight ago, his club was in crisis, culminating in an episode where he slammed Zac O'Brien into a wall during a break in a reserves match.

Since then, the Lions are unbeaten. But it has taken more than a flash of temper from Leppitsch to reverse his team's fortunes. The imports played well again, particularly Dayne Beams (32 disposals) and Mitch Robinson (three goals) and the midfield is starting to play to the level we expected and which engendered such pre-season optimism about the Lions.

But the biggest difference in the last two weeks has been the backline, which came to the fore again, in particular Harris Andrews and Marco Paparone, who looked so far below AFL standard a fortnight ago and but are now comfortably holding their own. That is great coaching from Leppitsch, an accomplished defender himself back in the day.

As for the Power, they're making fools of us all. The season that many expected would culminate with a Grand Final appearance at a minimum, is disappearing down the gurgler.

Teams have done their homework on the Power and have put the clamps on their hard-running, high-possession game. They're missing the grunt of Ollie Wines in the middle, meaning Robbie Gray has to spend too much time in the midfield and not as a terrorising small forward impossible to match up on. Paddy Ryder is still finding his feet and Jay Schulz and Justin Westhoff are down on last year.

And they don't have the same fitness advantage as previous seasons. Whether they're less fit, or the rest of the opposition has caught up, the Power are not blowing sides away this year.

Port needs to find its edge again and the next fortnight, against Richmond and Melbourne simply become non-negotiable. A third of the way through the season, Port is in some trouble.

Worth the wait

The AFL can never win when it comes to scheduling the Grand Final rematch. Play it too early and you can get a scratchy affair with neither side close to its best. Play it too late in the season and the risk is that one, or both teams, is out of form.

Thankfully, the Hawks and the Swans are now in good enough touch that Saturday night at the MCG should be a beauty.

Hawthorn got off to its now customary slow start against Melbourne, but clicked into gear later in the first quarter, and its second half was sublime. The same for the Swans, who after trailing Geelong at the long break, kicked 10 goals to one in an imperious second half.

Luke Parker added to his body of work with his best game yet while if Lance Franklin can play like that with a bum ankle, then where can I sign up for one as well?

It is an important game. The Hawks have the second best percentage in the competition yet have not won two games on the trot this year. Lose this and they'll be 4-4, which adds all sorts of complications for the remainder of the season, chiefly the sort of player load management that was a key factor in their 2013 and 2014 premiership seasons.

Are they still built for a season of catch-up footy? They played with a chip on their shoulder against Melbourne and will enjoy three handy inclusions for Saturday night – Isaac Smith, Jordan Lewis and Brian Lake.

The Swans will dress it up as 'just another match' and true, this is round eight so the four points on offer here are the same as for any other home and away match. But they were humiliated in the Grand Final and have lost their past four to the Hawks on the MCG. They also need to win this.

It actually makes for a cracking Saturday night. North Melbourne's last fortnight has been much better and the Kangaroos will relish the chance to test themselves against the best in the business – unbeaten Fremantle at Domain Stadium.

QUESTION TIME



Ashley Browne: There were two schools of thought post-match as to how the Demons move on from the 105-point belting from the Hawks. On Triple M, club legend Garry Lyon said the players should be made to watch the game and to dissect where it all went wrong, play by play. However, coach Paul Roos said the tape from the match would be consigned to the rubbish bin. "I don't think we'll show the game to the players at all, I don't think there's any benefit in that," he said post-match. Only three Demons played remotely well – Tom McDonald, Cam Pedersen and Jeff Garlett, while Nathan Jones gave his all, as he always does. So far this year with Melbourne, it has seemed a case of two steps forward and one step back, although Saturday's lamentable performance might have represented about four steps back. They're not back to where they were last season, but they still get badly exposed when they don't bring anything close to their best.



AB: I temper this prediction slightly given I wrote the same thing about Gold Coast this time last year, but the Giants should make the finals from here. They're 5-2 and need to win another seven to get in. I have penciled them in to beat Adelaide, the Brisbane Lions, St Kilda, Gold Coast, Geelong, Essendon, Carlton and Melbourne from here. That's 13 wins, which means a home final even comes into the equation. West Coast is 5-2, but still has the Swans, Hawks, Cats and Crows to come at home as well as an 'away' game to the Dockers. North Melbourne (in Hobart), Collingwood, Adelaide and Richmond are among their road trips, so they're not quite there yet. They need to bring the same game they brought to Port Adelaide last week for the remainder of their away games to be sure of making the finals. But Adam Simpson has done a masterful job of engineering such a great start to the season given the frightful injury list the Eagles have had to deal with.



AB: Ha! An interesting line, but I'm not sure one that I agree with. The umpiring department is more approachable, more upfront and more honest. If they make a mistake, they'll 'fess up about and you only have to watch our Whistleblowers show each week to do so.



AB: I'm with Brad Scott on this one. I reckon the umpires applied the rules correctly when adjudicating Thomas on Friday night and in the case of the highlighted free kicks there was definite head-high contact. Thomas has a history of ducking and drawing free kicks in the past, but this wasn't the case on Friday night.