HISTORY says coaches don't survive four-wins-from-past-39-matches scorelines.

Which is where Brendon Bolton finds himself after another disastrous Carlton performance on Sunday against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. 

The Roos were as vulnerable as the Blues. Their best players – Ben Cunnington, Jack Ziebell, Ben Brown – stood up, and the yet-to-be-proven Cam Zurhaar (five goals) and Tarryn Thomas contributed in ways their Blues' counterparts couldn't.

Yes, Carlton was smashed with the unavailability of key players Mitch McGovern, Matthew Kreuzer, Kade Simpson and Nic Newman. But, this was as poor a performance as any in Bolton's four seasons, given the game was dead as a contest by time-on of the first quarter. 

Seven rounds in and Bolton's Blues are ranked 17th for inside 50s, marks inside 50 and tackles inside 50, 15th for scoring, and average almost 33 disposals fewer than their opponent each game, the fourth-worst record in the League. Take out Patrick Cripps and the Blues don't appear really good at anything.

Fifteen matches remain this season, and Bolton should be given every one of those to fight his way out of his now multitude of problems. 

But Carlton officials would be negligent if they weren't at least pondering who will be coaching their team in round one, 2020.

The master of deflection is at it again

Alastair Clarkson has four premierships as a coach, is in the conversation about best coach ever, wants more flags.

His fifth won't be coming this year. There's just too much inconsistency and unknown about his 2019 line-up, the loss to Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday the latest poor offering and leaving the Hawks with a 3-4 record. 

When Clarkson can't fully control his team's fortunes, he seems even more on edge – and prepared to attempt to publicly focus on matters that he wouldn't care about highlighting if the Hawks were fighting for a top-of-the-ladder spot.

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This year we've seen Clarkson, without actually naming him, publicly attack AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking on a couple of fronts – he bemoaned the new rules banning use of runners, and then highlighted problems with various umpires' adjudications. 

On Saturday evening, after the loss to Melbourne, he said the Demons wouldn't inflict any damage on the 2019 season.

Clarkson will deny he is attempting to divert attention from the struggles of his own team, but he is.

Every one of his players continues to work as hard as ever, but efficiency is low. There are issues with Jarryd Roughead, the midfield, and supposed boom recruit Chad Wingard.

Wingard has as much talent as any player in the competition, but he ultimately wasn't required or wanted by his former club, and is now looming as a major challenge for Clarkson. 

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The Little Master's renaissance 

He couldn't, could he? 

Nine days from turning 35, Gary Ablett has just completed a four-match sequence at least the equal to anyone else in the competition in 2019. 

If he wasn't best afield on Sunday in Geelong's smashing of Essendon at the MCG, he was in the discussion and, quite possibly, back in calculations for what would be a third Brownlow Medal. 

Don't scoff at that prospect. There are players who rack up stats, and then there is Ablett who racks up quality stats – 93 disposals in the past four games (Essendon, West Coast, Hawthorn, GWS). 

His two goals against the Bombers took to nine his goal tally from those four hitouts, where he has been outstanding in his new role primarily as a forward, and a match-day report for a raised forearm on Dylan Shiel will surely result in a fine only. 

The Cats have lost just one game this year, to GWS by four points after leading by five goals. 

They destroyed Essendon, which is now 3-4 and may simply be nothing but a tease.

A tale of two big forwards 

Jeremy Cameron. Aaron Naughton. Love 'em.

Old-fashioned players with footy brains who demand the ball, love the on-field limelight, intimidate opponents. 

It's taken Cameron a while to officially establish himself as the game's best key forward, but now that he has in his 30 goals in seven matches of 2019 (six against St Kilda on Saturday), he clearly carries that status and is even keeping alive what we thought unthinkable in modern day football – a 100-goal season. 

Naughton in 2019 is Cameron of 2013. A young man positioning himself to take over the game in his second year in the AFL. It's taken Cameron eight years to get there, and quite possibly, the personal and public carnage from last season's hit on Brisbane's Harris Andrews has been his greatest lesson. 

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Naughton is next-level excitement. He finished fourth in the Dogs' best-and-fairest in his debut season. Think about that. He will win it this year if he maintains something like his five-goal, 16-disposal, nine-contested-mark (14 in total) performance against Richmond at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick playfully said Jesus Christ would've struggled on Naughton. He's right. He's something else, this 19-year-old.

If we were asked to start a team from scratch, he would be our first selected.

Not a clash for the ages

Given there's a less than 30 per cent take-up of Foxtel offerings in Australia, not many people saw the Sunday twilight fixture. 

And that was a good thing. At half-time, those neutral footy watchers who had set out to view the Crows-Dockers game would have tuned out. 1.6 to 2.2, in good conditions. 

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But Don Pyke won't care. A 17-point win was a third consecutive Crows victory. Sometimes you just need to grind out early-season games.

They are still capable of playing a major part in this season, the Crows. Something we can't say about the Dockers, who disappoint and revert to unsuccessful, negative ways every time they seem poised to re-emerge.

Come on, Horse. It's OK...

Just say it. 

It starts with R.

Rebuild. 

It's what the Swans are doing, and they may as well publicly admit it. It's actually OK to do so. Your supporters know what's going on. 

Brisbane toyed with them on Saturday, moving to a 5-2 scoreline and fourth on the ladder. Hugh McCluggage is having the breakout year he was always going to have. Mitch Robinson continues to impress with his new leadership-driven ways.

And Daniel Rich may, finally, be the player we always thought he was going to be, 11 years into his AFL life. 

They are looming as a really nice story, the 2019 Lions.