GREATER Western Sydney is still a new enough football club that it breaks new ground or creates some type of history nearly every week.

There was another "first" for the Giants on Saturday night after the 16-point win over Essendon, and it was particularly significant.

For the first time in five and a half seasons, GWS sits atop the AFL ladder. And while there has long been an air of inevitability about this given the blue-chip playing list the Giants have amassed, the reason they head the ladder at this particular stage of this particular season is their one big road win of the year, last week against West Coast in Perth.

Take a look at the contenders for the premiership this year, and with the exception of the Giants they have yet to look totally convincing away from home.

Adelaide beat Hawthorn away in round two, but it took the Hawks being down a couple of players in the final quarter before the Crows finally put them away. Conceding 10.4 to North Melbourne in the opening term in Hobart in round seven raised questions about the Crows away from home, while they were blown away by Geelong at Simonds Stadium on Friday night and the 22-point final margin flattered them if anything.

Speaking of Geelong, the three-game run at home that culminated with the win over the Crows on Friday night could not have gone more swimmingly. But we remember the three weeks prior, which included losses at the MCG to Collingwood and Essendon and to Gold Coast at Metricon.

And Geelong players hadn't even walked off the ground on Friday night before already discussing the importance of beating West Coast in Perth on Thursday week, in their first game back after the bye.

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The Western Bulldogs have been scratchy away, losing to Fremantle and the Giants outside Victoria and to the Cats at Simonds Stadium. For their own piece of mind, as well as ladder position, a win at the SCG on Thursday night is critically important. The good news going in is that they are 2-0 there in the Luke Beveridge era.

Two of Richmond's four defeats were outside Victoria, namely a belting from Adelaide and an all-too-familiar last-minute meltdown against the Giants.

Port Adelaide is now worthy of mention in premiership discussions as well. The Power were mighty in their first-half demolition of Hawthorn on Thursday night, but with the benefit of hindsight, their best performance of the year might have been the narrow loss to Geelong the previous week, in which a Charlie Dixon brain fade likely cost them the win.

A quirk of the Power's season is that the only time they have touched down in Melbourne is to catch the bus to Geelong. But three of their next seven games are in Victoria – against Essendon, Collingwood and Melbourne – and if they really are premiership material, they'll need to win a couple of those.

We are in the midst of an enthralling football season. But the point of difference between the great and the truly great teams in 2017 will be their ability to win some games on the road. Win away to give yourself the best chance of playing your finals at home.

Bravo Collingwood 

This was one of the bravest Collingwood wins for quite some time, leading virtually all day to beat Fremantle at Domain Stadium by 20 points.

With Daniel Wells and Jamie Elliott off the ground injured and both Tyson Goldsack and Levi Greenwood clearly playing hurt, the Magpies outlasted the Dockers to get themselves back in the finals hunt at 5-6 and set up a delicious Queen's Birthday Monday clash with Melbourne.

There were moments when the Pies might have been made to pay for some poor conversion, but the Dockers stand condemned for some horrendous decision making and dreadful skill errors in the final term when the Pies were down and seemingly out. Case in point, Bradley Hill streaming into an open goal and pushing the kick to the right.

So instead of the scores being level and with the home crowd roaring, the air was deflated from the balloon moments later when Will Hoskin-Elliott charged through the middle, pulled off a successful rugby-style chip'n'charge and kicked the goal that gave the Magpies all the breathing space they needed.

Nathan Buckley has coached his side beautifully the past three weeks and he will need to keep on doing so. Elliott and Wells have been so critical to Collingwood's resurgence and if the pictures out of Perth are any indication, they may be missing for quite some time. But he has the Pies playing with spirit and verve and they're getting superb leadership from Scott Pendlebury, Adam Treloar, Steele Sidebottom and Jeremy Howe, which will make them a dangerous opponent for as long as they're in the finals mix.

All roads will lead to the MCG next Monday, with the Big Freeze 3 motor neurone disease fundraiser before the match and a really big game between a pair of finals aspirants to follow.

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Meanwhile, this was a dismal afternoon for Fremantle and the great road wins over Melbourne and Richmond earlier this season are rapidly disappearing from the rearview mirror. The Dockers can't seem to settle their structure and their forward line never clicked into gear on Sunday.

Yes, it is a rebuilding season for the Dockers after last season's shocker. But it is also a remarkably even season and a finals berth is there for the taking. But not for much longer if Sunday's effort can be taken as a guide.

All eyes on the money men 

If the weight of expectation about their playing futures is a burden for Josh Kelly and Dustin Martin, neither player is showing it.

In the space of five hours on Saturday, both players demonstrated once again why they are the most sought-after players in the country.

By half-time at Spotless Stadium, Josh Kelly had racked up 22 disposals (seven contested) at 95 per cent efficiency, three marks and seven inside 50s for the Giants, and he would end the match with 38 disposals in a clear best on ground performance.

A few hours later at Etihad Stadium, Dustin Martin had 38 disposals, kicked two goals and was the spark for the Tigers as they drew away from North Melbourne after half-time for an important win.

We're not sure whether either is a rabid consumer of the football media, but they would know that stacks of column centimetres and hour after hour of airtime is devoted to where they might play next year.

Yet they keep getting better by the week, which helps their clubs and does wonders for their future bank balances. Pressure? What pressure?

But perhaps rather than be anxious about what the pair might do next, Giants fans and the Tiger army should sit back and enjoy the show because Kelly and Martin are both delivering exceptional seasons.

No dud brother here

Geelong has played 36 matches since Scott Selwood joined his brother at the club at the start of last season.

Various ailments have restricted him to just eight appearances for the Cats, but seven of those have been wins, so his importance to the side cannot be overstated. He is a walk-up member of Geelong's best 22 every day of the week.

On Friday night, he locked in on Rory Sloane and kept Adelaide's prime mover to a relatively modest 22 possessions, and his tackling and hardness are pivotal to the Cats. He had 17 tackles against both the Bulldogs and Port, and then 10 against the Crows.

He is also a great organiser in the midfield and just having him out there frees up Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield to be even more damaging.

As the games-played figure suggests, durability isn't necessarily one of Selwood's strong suits, but the more he plays the better off the Cats are and the stronger their chances of playing deep into September.

Other observations

1. Monday's Match Review Panel deliberations will be interesting with Tom Hawkins' jab to Matt Crouch appearing to be the best example yet of the jumper punching the AFL is seeking to eradicate from the game. Not so subtly, the Cats have been out there saying that they believe the contact was not serious enough to warrant any action and the feeling here is that if Hawkins is facing a suspension, that the Cats may fight it, meaning the AFL Tribunal might sit for the first time this year. An added dimension to the deliberations is Jimmy Bartel's presence on the MRP. In Bartel's perfect world, former teammate Hawkins will be in trouble because jumper punches would be deemed as "non-football acts".

2. Living in Adelaide and all, Charlie Dixon could not have had an easy week in the lead-up to the clash with the Hawks, but his response was brutal and emphatic, just like his team's. Hawthorn didn't have anything close to a suitable match-up and the end result was his best game yet for the club. More please.

3. Hawthorn's first half was an embarrassment, even for a club that as Alastair Clarkson all but suggested post-game, is in rebuild mode. Having three first-choice defenders out of the side didn't help, nor did some peculiar fixturing that had them playing three games in 13 days. That is quite common and manageable, but the last two of them were six days apart and both interstate. Strangely, the Hawks are favourites to beat Gold Coast on Saturday, despite losing to the Suns by 86 points two months ago.

4. Richmond puts its feet up for a few days after a 7-4 start to the season that even the most wildly optimistic supporters would not have seen coming. It has been a fine season to date, and for us neutrals the fast and frantic Tigers have been fun to watch. For their supporters though, the fear and dread of what's to come is only just beginning. And that is loads of fun as well.

5. For all the focus on whether Martin and Kelly will re-sign, Steven May's future plans are just as interesting. What sort of faith does he have in the future direction of the Suns? Chief executive Mark Evans was nice and combative on SEN over the weekend and not before time. Gold Coast needs to get on the front foot that bit more and make it uncomfortable for a co-captain to consider leaving. Still, the Suns had a nice win against West Coast on Saturday, further proof that when this club puts close to its best team on the park, it is more than competitive.

6. Have you ever seen a side needing to move the length of the ground in less than a minute to try to win a game do so with less urgency than West Coast did on Saturday? Lose by three points or cough the ball up and lose by nine points – at that stage of the game it didn't matter, but the Eagles approached those final few seconds with no spark or energy. That's three straight losses for West Coast and not only are the Eagles miles from flag contention, they're no good thing any more even to play finals. The usual suspects – Jack Darling and Mark LeCras chief among them – continue to go missing away from home, and while it might seem unfair to single out that pair, who between them managed just 18 touches and no goals, they're the ones who needed to step it up with Josh Kennedy out of the side.

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