THE WINS don't get much more famous than this for the famous, old dark Blues.

No Marc Murphy after 10 minutes. No Liam Sumner before half-time. Levi Casboult and Matthew Kreuzer back from leg injuries weeks before they were supposed to be, and sporting all manner of strapping that didn't inspire any confidence about their health and wellbeing.

And they were facing Geelong, who they had never beaten at Etihad Stadium in 14 attempts. 

So while Sunday shaped as a bleak afternoon for the Bluebaggers, instead another chapter was written in one of the great football revival stories.

Carlton's 19-point win was fuelled by the unshakable belief the Blues have in the systems and structures introduced by Brendon Bolton. The new coach had Carlton's backline sorted pretty much from the start but in the last six weeks the forwards have got busy and as a result, the Blues have won five of those six matches.

At 5-5, they've already won one more game than last year and they're only a game outside the eight. Knock over the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda in the next fortnight and they might well be in the eight.

Amazing. 

Heroes abounded for the Blues everywhere on Sunday. How about Bryce Gibbs, who with Murphy sidelined, played one of his great games for the Blues with 34 touches, eight tackles and nine clearances. So spent was Gibbs, he was physically ill before he walked off the ground at the end.

Kreuzer and Casboult were mighty under the circumstances. Sam Docherty was terrific on Joel Selwood and Dennis Armfield kicked an equal personal best three goals. But really, to single out any Carlton player would be grossly unfair because everybody in navy blue made a contribution.

And that's been the story of the year at Carlton. Bolton pressed the reset button at Carlton on the very first day he walked into Princes Park. The team and the club are almost unrecognisable from last year and indeed from many seasons past.  The Blues play with honesty, courage, selflessness and determination, hallmarks that have been largely missing from that club for years. 

The Blues have been to the bottom and plainly didn't like what they saw. Bolton seems hell-bent on ensuring they don't go back there any time soon. He is already receiving loud plaudits for his work, and deservedly so. 

Brave Pies run out of legs

For a while there, it looked as though Carlton's brave effort would be matched within a couple of hours and perhaps even bettered by their most bitter rival on the other side of town.

Collingwood started the final quarter at the MCG three points ahead of the Western Bulldogs and with just one fresh player available on the interchange bench. And before too long in the final stanza, it had no rotations left.  

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One by one, down they went. Alan Toovey to concussion early, followed by Taylor Adams with a hamstring, Alex Fasolo to a shoulder and then early in the final quarter, Darcy Moore, also to a shoulder. Pies coach Nathan Buckley said he had never seen anything like it in his time as a player and coach.

The Collingwood bench in the final term without a single fit player. Picture: AFL Media

The Western Bulldogs kicked five goals to one in the final quarter to grind out a 21-point win. Buckley was left to lament just six goals until three-quarter time from 44 inside 50s. Had they been a bit more productive going forward until then, the Pies may have had a large enough lead to withstand all the misfortune that fell their way.

The approach by the coaches was interesting. Buckley didn't dwell too much on the interchange issues at the final change, and spent the final term trying to engineer positional moves that would at least preserve some energy.

Nor did Luke Beveridge tell his players about Collingwood's parlous situation, lest they start thinking that their fitness and rotation edge would do the job alone.

Which is why despite the strong finish he left the MCG thinking a bullet had been dodged rather than four points earned purely on merit. Much of his post-match assessment was qualified by repeated mentions of Collingwood's plight in the final quarter.

Nevertheless the Dogs are 7-3 and return home to Etihad Stadium next week for another Sunday afternoon special, this time against West Coast.

And they're 2-0 at the MCG for the year. They won't play there again in the home and away season but as Beveridge noted, they are becoming increasingly comfortable at the ground where the games that really matter are played at the end of the year.

Mitchell, Swans get their timing right

Tom Mitchell picked the right time to play the best fortnight of his career for the Sydney Swans.

Keeping Sam Mitchell to 14 touches last week was great; racking up 41 on his own the following week with the shackles released was even better, as discussions continue about a new deal. The Blues are biting, but the likelihood is that he will remain with the Swans.

Mitchell completes what has emerged as the toughest and probably best midfield in the AFL. In what is shaping as the most even season in years, the team with the fewest flaws come September is likely to win it and that team might well be the Swans.

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They have Lance Franklin playing as well as ever, they're holding up beautifully in the ruck and in the backline and the midfield combination of Josh Kennedy, Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker and now Mitchell, is flying. 

The season to date has been a triumph for John Longmire. A borderline finalist in the eyes of many, the Swans appear invigorated this year and perhaps we were too quick to write off a side that by last September, was tired, sore and missing too many good players. 

They have negotiated a tough fortnight in fine fashion and can now press for a top-two finish and the various rewards that will bring.

It was North Melbourne's first defeat of the year, but after nine wins to start the year, the Kangas earned the right to their first disappointing week.

There will be no rush to judgement here on the back of one defeat. It was the first of their six-game stretch against fellow finals and flag aspirants. There were concerns, the poor form of Drew Petrie and Brent Harvey, and a listless midfield among them, but North has shown enough this year to suggest these were aberrations that can be quickly rectified.

But the combination of the Kangas on their alternate home deck, Jack Riewoldt on his home deck and Friday night footy for the first time in Hobart, will make for a great night's viewing. 

The latest rule in the spotlight

Don't expect a memo around head-high tackles or for it to become the AFL umpiring department's so-called 'rule of the week'.

What is needed in the wake of Dermott Brereton's surprise umbrage towards Lindsay Thomas on Friday night and the weekend-long debate it started, is for a few deep breaths and a meaningful discussion about the rule and how it is coached at the appropriate time, which is the end of the season.

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Thomas is far from the worst culprit. Champion Data figures published on Sunday revealed that the North Melbourne small forward has received only the 25th-most free kicks for head-high tackles this season.

There are fundamental issues that need to be addressed in the cool light of day, which is after the season. The need to protect the head has to be balanced against the spirit of the game, which is not to milk free kicks.

Ask rusted-on AFL supporters what they like most about their game when compared to soccer and the staging and diving that take place in soccer usually tops the list. Left unchecked, ducking for free kicks could become a similar blight on our game, but it is not a matter for a midweek memo. 

Bombers rise to the occasion

This column hasn't checked in with Essendon all that much this year. It is the season with the asterisk for the Bombers as they get through a difficult season before much of their talent and leadership returns in 2017.

They had a dip at the MCG on Saturday night. It has been a tough baptism for first-year midfielder Darcy Parish but he was great against Richmond with 25 touches and two goals, while Orazio Fantasia kicked two goals including a team-lifter right on half-time.

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Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti impressed once again and continues to press claims to be part of Essendon's set-up in the medium to long-term.

What was great about the Bombers is that they continued to press and made Richmond work for the win. Two goals just before half-time and the first two of the final quarter caused some anxious moments and as John Worsfold noted, they handled the occasion far better than Anzac Day, which was effectively over within minutes.

Still, it will be a slog from here for Essendon. The Bombers face the winless Fremantle at Domain Stadium on Saturday night, but will do so without any recognised key defender. Sam Michael, meet Matthew Pavlich. Win that and they're likely to avoid the wooden spoon, which would be a fabulous effort. Lose it and a long and cold winter awaits. 

Other observations

1. Saturday was Lewis Day at the Gabba. Small forward Lewis Taylor played perhaps his best game yet for the Brisbane Lions with 23 possessions and three goals, while Hawthorn's Jordan Lewis racked up an incredible 42 possessions – the second-highest tally of his career and the most by any player in his 250th game – but 18 of them were contested, an area that he and the Hawks need to get better at. Lewis looked overcome with emotion in the victory circle after the game and who could blame him? The veteran Hawk said he would enjoy a "quiet ale" on Saturday night, but given the events of the last fortnight, nobody would begrudge him from having a few more than that. 

2. The football gods had their way on Saturday night. After a week in which the Greater Western Sydney hype (some of which the club brought upon itself after a media blitz with leading Sydney sportswriters) bordered on the ridiculous, the Giants took three quarters to really get going against the Crows at Adelaide Oval. The result was a 22-point win to Adelaide, which really could have been a little bit more. The Giants are yet to win in Adelaide and that is another hurdle they need to overcome before they are fair-dinkum premiership material.

3. Just hand Eddie Betts the goal of the year award now. Nothing will beat the audacious ... no, outrageous effort from the forward pocket on Saturday night. As long as Cyril Rioli is playing, you won't find me calling Betts the best small forward in the competition but it was the perfect stage on the perfect weekend for Betts to kick the best goal you will see this year. Betts gave a revealing interview to News Limited that appeared on the morning of the game, which begs the question yet again of how the hell Carlton ever let him go.

4. For the second time in five weeks, Charlie Dixon delivered a bag of five goals for Port Adelaide and he now has 26 goals over the first 10 weeks of the season. That's the sort of return Ken Hinkley would have envisaged when he reached out to the wayward Gold Coast forward and brought him to Alberton. Hinkley was insistent throughout that he could coax some consistent football from Dixon and slowly but surely, he has been proven right. The Power are 5-5 and just hanging in, but their fortunes will likely be decided over the next fortnight with Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs on the agenda. Win both and they're back in it, but to do so would mean winning three games on the trot, a feat that has been beyond them so far this year.

WATCH: Dixon demolishes the Demons

5. Good to see there is a role for the good, old-fashioned tongue-lashing in modern-day footy. Fremantle coach Ross Lyon delivered one at quarter-time at Etihad Stadium on Saturday after the Dockers conceded the first four goals to St Kilda inside 12 minutes in listless fashion. And when his Saints counterpart Alan Richardson said he called the players in immediately at half-time rather than have the line coaches do their thing, rest assured there would likely have been some paint-peeling there as well as he sought to address a poor second term. The Saints finished off the job in the final quarter to register back-to-back wins for the first time since the opening fortnight of 2014.