• Nine things we learned from round two

SOMETIME around 9pm Saturday, the hashtag for the game at Domain Stadium, #AFLFreoSuns, became a trending topic on Twitter in Melbourne.

On paper it would be tough to find a game that was more off-Broadway in Melbourne, particularly on the same evening that St Kilda champ Nick Riewoldt was being feted for his 300th game, but as the Bulldogs were grinding their way to victory, remote controls were switching to the game on the other side of the country.

The Suns kicked away with a seven-goals-to-two second quarter before holding the Dockers at bay to win by 26 points. It was their first win in eight attempts at Domain Stadium, where their average losing margin before then had been 51 points.

Rodney Eade has the Suns playing a bit like he had the Bulldogs when they were at their best. They were too fast and too slick for the stodgy Dockers. Gold Coast conceded the inside 50 count by nine, yet enjoyed 31 scoring shots from 51 entries.

Tom Lynch kicked five goals and demonstrated once again that the $750,000 per year or whatever it will cost Gold Coast to sign him to that contract extension – considered a mere formality – will be worth every cent. And Jack Martin kicked four goals from 16 touches in what was probably his best outing.

The Suns had barely finished walking off the ground when those who have been part of the journey from day one were ranking it as the club's best win. Given the stature (if not necessarily the exposed form) of the opponent and the venue, it was hard to argue.

Over the summer, Eade told anyone who cared to listen how pleased he was with the second half of last season, particularly the last few weeks and that there had been a massive change in the culture and the behaviours at the football club, all for the better.

Perhaps we should have paid more attention to Eade, an old pro of the coaching caper, who has been around the traps a few times.

His men should be 4-0 in a fortnight with Carlton and the Brisbane Lions to come. The maiden finals berth that was surely Gold Coast's in 2014 until Gary Ablett broke his shoulder, is now on the horizon once more.

• Who fired for your club in this weekend's state leagues?

Bravo, Bombers

You might not like Essendon. You might never want to forgive those at the club responsible in any shape or form for the supplements scandal that has cast such a stain on the game these past few years.

But you'd need a heart of flint not to be moved by the scenes following Saturday's 13-point defeat of Melbourne at the MCG.

We should have seen this coming. There is enough talent on the Bombers' list to ensure a few wins for the season. 0-22 was never a real option. And they were facing Melbourne, a club that hasn't had a handle on prosperity since the day Norm Smith quit the club.

The Bombers smelt blood in the water on Saturday and they pounced. Contested possessions were about even but they absolutely smashed Melbourne on the outside. And Joe Daniher played the game like the biggest and best kid in the schoolyard.

Essendon will not have it over any team in the competition for talent in 2016. But each week John Worsfold will assess what he has at his disposal, look at what the opposition brings to the table and come up with a plan to win. And there will be weeks when teams like Melbourne, with heads "as big as boarding-house puddings" as Tim Watson once said of a St Kilda team he coached, turn up thinking they can go through the motions and the Bombers will pounce.

Which is what we saw on Saturday.

Essendon skipper Brendon Goddard celebrates Essendon's win. Picture: AFL Media

Hawks have the talent to pull off their balancing act

The delicate tightrope Hawthorn is trying to walk this year involves balancing the bid for a fourth straight premiership and a place in football history, with the need to rejuvenate the playing list and avoid plummeting of the edge of the cliff when the golden era draws to its inevitable close.

If Sunday at the MCG proved anything, it is that Hawks might yet be able to do both.

They handily beat trendy flag pick West Coast by 46 points – the same margin as last year's Grand Final and which in football terms, was just two matches ago – and discovered that a couple of the next-generation Hawks belong at the level.

Medium forward James Sicily and midfielder Jonathan O'Rourke were both poor against Geelong on Easter Monday and admittedly, they had more than a few mates in that regard.

But they rebounded superbly against the Eagles on Sunday. The lively Sicily kicked 4.2 and took six marks, three of which were contested, while O'Rourke had 18 disposals, some score assists and, for the first time since crossing from Greater Western Sydney at the end of 2013, displayed glimpses of the talent you would expect from a former No.2 draft pick.

Like many of the younger Hawks, Sicily and O'Rourke had to mainly bide their time at Box Hill last year as the Hawks marched relentlessly towards another flag. But the old 'use 'em or lose 'em' rule also applies, and if they didn't get repeated exposure at AFL level soon, their development might be permanently stymied or they would seek further opportunity elsewhere.

So despite their struggles last week, Hawthorn coach Clarkson was quick to pencil their names on to the team sheet once again this week, saying, "The easy thing would have been to send them to back to Box Hill and get a kick there. We needed to show faith in them."

"They needed belief from their teammates and coaches that they can do it."

Next up for the Hawks is a classic heavyweight bout – the red-hot Western Bulldogs on their home deck at Etihad Stadium. The Dogs shape as a genuine challenger for the silverware this year and of those on the long Hawthorn injury list, only Liam Shiels is a chance to return.

Which means the new 'soldiers', as Clarkson is wont to call his players, will be required for active service once again. "We've held those kids back a little bit but we're ready to give them opportunities now," he said. "We've got genuine belief they can do it on a consistent basis."

And he now has the evidence as well.

A good week for Tom Lynch

Tom Lynch of the Suns wasn't even the best Tom Lynch of the weekend. That honour belonged to the Tom Lynch of Adelaide who kicked six goals in the Crows' 58-point pounding of Port Adelaide, in their biggest Showdown win in seven years.

Adelaide won the contested footy then streamed the ball in waves on the outside and if six goals to Lynch wasn't enough, then five goals to Eddie Betts and four to Josh Jenkins sealed the deal.

Add Taylor Walker to that forward mix and it is frighteningly good and backs up the 'best is yet to come' talk we've been hearing from coach Don Pyke.

The Crows were inspirational in the way they responded in the second half of last season to the death of coach Phil Walsh. It must have been a fraught environment for Pyke to walk into it, but he has regenerated the spark and the excitement around the Crows.

Even in defeat to North Melbourne last week, the Crows were fun to watch and they will fancy their chances to knock over Richmond at Etihad next Saturday. The slick deck should really suit them.

Other observations

The Western Bulldogs have conceded 10 goals in eight quarters of football. It is a remarkable statistic. Dogs coach Luke Beveridge can coach backlines. He totally changed the way the Hawthorn back six operates and oversaw that unit in three Grand Finals for two premierships. It helps enormously when the ball doesn't get down there and the Dogs have restricted their opponents so far to just 72 inside 50s. And in new full-back Marcus Adams, the Dogs might have the steal of the 2015 draft. At 23, he's too old to win the NAB AFL Rising Star, but his strength and marking ability is already that of a 50-game veteran.

So used to being deflated, there are already Melbourne supporters lamenting that the Demons bypassed Darcy Parish with the fourth pick overall in favour of Clayton Oliver. Never mind that Oliver already has a Rising Star nomination in his pocket after a brilliant debut against the Giants last week. Darcy was superb for the Bombers on Saturday but because he's a different sort of midfielder, wasn't matched with Oliver all that often. But never mind, some Demons supporters feel they have been sold a dud. Strange.

With a couple of days to digest it all, Richmond types will likely come to the conclusion that the Tigers were largely responsible for their own demise against Collingwood on Friday night.  Their structures fell away and they made some awful decisions with the ball. Brett Deledio – a cool head and a great user of the ball – is a glaring absence from that side. And memo Tyrone Vickery: you are paid to kick goals from 40 metres out from goal in the final quarter.

When the AFL released the 2016 fixture last October, one of the highlights was the number of players going against their former clubs for the first time. In the end, Harley Bennell didn't get on to the park at all for Fremantle against Gold Coast, while Ryan Bastinac was serviceable at best for the Brisbane Lions in their loss to North Melbourne. The headline act this weekend was always going to be Steve Johnson, who with two goals and some noted physicality, helped the Giants to their win over Geelong. Johnson's affection for the Cats remains undiminished and he looked relieved rather than overjoyed at the final siren. It was no doubt a difficult afternoon and one he will be pleased to put behind him.

Scoring was down marginally this week, from an average of 97 points a game to 85.6. The correction was probably inevitable as teams looked to clamp down defensively after last week's relative shoot-outs. But the victories largely went to the clubs that ran hard and took the game on, such as the Suns, Bulldogs and Bombers, while we again saw matches that were tight and low-scoring early, but which opened up considerably after half-time, such as the MCG thriller on Friday night. Give us a few more weeks before we draw more complete conclusions but football is better this year, more attractive to watch and with a more even spread of better teams. Two weeks in, there are 13 teams with genuine finals claims and perhaps six with claims on winning the flag. These are good times.