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Mea culpa.

As one of the many who left Port Adelaide out of my top eight at the start of the season, I am now offering my humblest apologies and hastily reshuffling my predicted ladder (as I wipe the egg from my face).

Not only are the first-placed Power now finals certainties, they are also top-two worthy. The road to the premiership might run through the Moreton Bay fig trees behind the goals into the centre of Adelaide Oval.

In just a season and six games, Port coach Ken Hinkley has assembled a side that would have all the hallmarks one that is flag-worthy.

The Power are tough, fit and fast. They put their skates on and move the ball with precision. They run games out superbly. They are miserly in defence (keeping Geelong to 9.13 is a fair effort) and they have a wonderful attack. Shut down Jay Schulz and Justin Westhoff will get you. And they have the gifted Chad Wingard and Robbie Gray playing at their feet.

All these elements were on display in their master class against Geelong on Sunday evening.

They are brilliantly led by Travis Boak, coached superbly by Ken Hinkley and they play with a chip on their shoulder. They don’t just want to escape Adelaide's shadow but that of the rest of the competition.

It has taken Port all of three games to establish a fearsome and intimidating home ground advantage. A sell-out 47,000 fans at Adelaide Oval watched the Power feast on the Cats and while the home schedule is challenging - with Fremantle, Hawthorn and the Sydney Swans all still set to visit - you'd back them to win the nine or 10 at home that sets them up for a serious assault on the top four.  

Significantly, they only play the Cats and the Hawks once.

They are playing with such spark, it is difficult to see them collapsing from here. They'll play finals in 2014, and probably a few.

Here come the Suns

On the same weekend as the Carlton-Collingwood clash and a western derby with suddenly desperate stakes, Sunday's 1pm North Melbourne-Gold Coast clash won't attract anything of the screaming headlines and talk-back minutes as the other two matches.

But it might just be the biggest game in the short history of the Gold Coast Football Club.

We are approaching round seven, when the top eight starts to take shape for the year. Looking at the last five seasons, here are how many of the finalists were already in the eight by the end of the seventh round.

2013: all eight if you include Essendon, which was later disqualified.
2012: five (but the other three who made it – Hawthorn, Geelong and North Melbourne were placed ninth to 11th)
2011: six
2010: seven
2009: seven

So here we are getting to a critical juncture of the season and Gold Coast is entrenched, not just in the top eight, but a game clear in sixth place of West Coast and Fremantle. West Australian football icon and Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna will enjoy that.

What I like about McKenna is that he has dared his men to dream. After the emphatic win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday he embraced talk that the Suns were in finals contention. He talked up his midfield group, calling them 'scary'.

Which is why Sunday's meeting with North Melbourne shapes as a beauty. The return of Jack Ziebell means North's midfield is now humming. The Nick Dal Santo acquisition has brought everything the Kangaroos hoped for when they signed him, and more. Daniel Wells should return this week. And skipper Andrew Swallow is back playing, although probably not at AFL level this week.

But the lead Gold Coast midfield quartet goes pretty well too. Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Jaeger O'Meara and Dion Prestia combined for 118 touches against the Giants and the Suns will have Harley Bennell back next week for his first game of the season.

You almost hope for a cold and miserable day on Sunday so that the Etihad roof stays firmly shut and these two crack midfields can run at each other all day in fast and dry conditions. A win to the Suns and recent history would suggest they are finals bound, which is why this is the most significant game yet for Gold Coast – and the best game of the round.

The Blues' big deal

For Carlton coach Mick Malthouse to describe Saturday's win over West Coast as "one of the better" he has been associated is a big deal because as of this weekend, he has 400 to compare.

But it was big deal considering all that surrounded it. The Blues made six changes to the side that beat the Western Bulldogs the previous week – Carlton's first of the season.

After some debatable list management decisions in recent years, it would have thrilled the Blues that the final two goals of their startling comeback came from youngsters Troy Menzel and Dylan Buckley.

And as the Eagles furiously attacked in the final minutes, mega-priced recruit Dale Thomas might have had his most important touch as a Blue just yet, a diving smother of Sharrod Wellingham just as his former Collingwood premiership teammate was about to unload a kick to deep in the West Coast forward line.

And then there's Marc Murphy. A fortnight ago, it was open season on the Carlton skipper after a listless performance in the shock loss to Melbourne. But he bounced back last week with 28 touches against the Western Bulldogs, working through the heavy tags of Liam Picken and Mitch Wallis.

On Saturday it was Scott Selwood initially applying the clamps, but Murphy ended up with more freedom and was brilliant with 32 possessions, including a searching run down the wing in the desperate final seconds.

Murphy's credentials as a Carlton star have long been established. But the last two weeks might just have been the making of him as a Carlton captain. At a time when the Blues are all about transition, with Mark LoGiudice announced as the successor to Stephen Kernahan as club president, Murphy is starting to prove that the Blues might yet have got the transition right when they moved on from Chris Judd as skipper.

QUESTION TIME

Did the Tigers start out too negative against the Hawks?
Richmond set itself up with one and occasionally two players behind the ball and it led to a scrappy first half, in which the Hawks were restricted to just six goals. The problem was that they only kicked three themselves, with Josh Gibson and Brian Lake enjoying their own man advantage. The Tigers went man-on-man in the third quarter and were swamped, with Hawthorn kicking 8.1 to 1.5 to seal the win. On the one hand, Damien Hardwick was right, they were just in touch at half-time and went in with a puncher's chance of stealing the win. Perhaps he banked his hopes on Richmond, with a 10-day break, over-running the Hawks who were coming off six. But it was puzzling given the Tigers have beaten Hawthorn in their past two contests, dominating contested ball and exposing the Hawks for pace. But the way the Tigers started the game, sent a message, albeit the wrong one, and the Hawks would have been licking their lips.

Are you buying Adelaide?
Not yet. Fair play to the Crows for turning their fortunes around after their 0-3 start but their scalps since then are St Kilda, GWS and the Western Bulldogs. Next up is Melbourne and that should take the Crows to 4-3 and get them all a bit excited in South Australia. A bit like 2012 when a ridiculously soft draw propelled them all the way to the preliminary final. But then comes Collingwood at Adelaide Oval on a Thursday night and North Melbourne, Gold Coast, Fremantle and Port in a cluster of games after that. Let's talk then.

How big a lead is a safe lead?
It has been a good weekend for comebacks. Essendon led by six goals before being rolled by Collingwood. Fremantle jumped to a four-goal lead before collapsing in a heap against North Melbourne.  The Blues trailed by four goals midway through the final quarter and won. And the Crows were down five goals early against the Bulldogs. It brought out the best in the likes of Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan, Boomer Harvey and Marc Murphy, as they willed their sides to victory. Wonderful to watch.



Ashley Browne: Seven touches, five hit-outs, two marks and a goal. That's the sum total of Daw's contribution to North's great win out west on Friday. Not earth-shattering by any stretch, but encouraging enough for Brad Scott to give him a sustained run at it as North's second ruckman-cum-forward over the next four weeks. Daniel Currie hasn’t worked out so far in that role for the Kangas, so it's time for Daw, whose profile it must be said, belies his standing in the game. Friday night was just his seventh game overall and his first for the year. Who knows whether or not he can really play?



AB: Here's the contrast between Fremantle and fellow premiership aspirants Geelong and Hawthorn. The latter two have been able to string together some impressive wins with several key players missing. Not so the Dockers, who have been hobbled without the players you have mentioned. The key absentee for me is Walters, who has kicked 86 goals from 45 games. For a team that doesn’t exactly keep the scoreboard ticking over at a furious pace, it is a significant loss and one that Ross Lyon needs to overcome. Ballantyne getting suspended does Freo's cause no good whatsoever, either. Direct your ire towards him, Dockers fans.



AB: Lots of questions about the Bombers this week and Carlisle featured every time. It would appear that Bombers coach Mark Thompson is going 'old school' on him, making it clear that for now he is a forward and that up forward he will play. And Carlisle needs to suck it up and work his way through it. Last week's public threat to drop him to the twos didn't pay dividends because Carlisle was quiet again. Despite that, Thompson talked him up after the game, so expect him to play against the Western Bulldogs next weekend. The Dons also clearly miss Brendon Goddard, Heath Hocking and Tom Bellchambers, different types of players but so important to Essendon's chemistry.



AB: I'm still withholding judgment on the Swans. The return of Adam Goodes to the side on Saturday night was another piece of the puzzle returning, but he replaced Franklin, so that's another piece back in the pile. Kurt Tippett and Sam Reid shape as big ins for the 'Ross Oakley Cup' against the Lions at the Gabba next weekend. You wouldn't think Franklin with a sore knee would travel to Brisbane, and would be saved for the big Friday night clash the following week against, yep, Hawthorn at ANZ Stadium. If that's the game we finally get to see all the Sydney big guns in the one team at the one time, then that will be compulsory viewing.