Round 5 has passed by and there are so many talking points to come out of the weekend’s matches.

‘Pies destroy Mick’s milestone
It was meant to be a night of celebration for Mick Malthouse and the Carlton Football Club, but instead both parties were left humiliated by their arch-rivals, and the club Malthouse coached for 12 seasons, Collingwood, on Friday night.

Malthouse’s record-breaking 715th game as a VFL/AFL coach will go down for all the very wrong reasons as the Blues crashed to a 75-point loss to the Pies, leaving them second last on the ladder only ahead of the Brisbane Lions.

‘Pies captain Scott Pendlebury officially took over from Gary Ablett Jr as the number one player in the Official AFL Player Ratings thanks to his 32 possessions which will have almost certainly won him three Brownlow Medal votes.

With the ‘Pies tracking very well after missing the finals last year, the stage is now set for a blockbuster Round 6 showdown against the Geelong Cats, the very side that denied them a record-equalling 16th AFL premiership in 2011.

Meanwhile, Blues coach Mick Malthouse’s future will once again come under the spotlight as time ticks down on his underwhelming coaching career at Carlton.

Once hailed as the man that could take the Blues to a record-breaking 17th flag, Malthouse has instead set his focus on rebuilding the club after they crashed to 13th place at season’s end, and don’t appear to be getting any better this season.

With home matches against the Brisbane Lions and GWS Giants to come in the next fortnight, there will be no excuses if the Blues cannot snag a win against either of these two clubs.

Cats get back on track
The Geelong Cats revived their stuttering season with a nine-point victory over Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.

A lot has been said about when the golden era the Cats enjoyed in the last eight years, in which they won two premierships and produced two Brownlow Medallists, was going to come to an end, and after losing three of their first four matches, many believed the inevitable was going to happen sooner rather than later.

However, they overcame the loss of Mitch Clark, who joined Andrew Mackie, Mathew Stokes and Jimmy Bartel on the sidelines due to injury, to subdue the Tigers and leave Damien Hardwick’s men without a win against the Cats since 2006, and down in 11th place on the ladder.

The Cats will now look forward to taking on second-placed Collingwood at the MCG this Friday night, where a win could see them continue their surge up the ladder after starting the season so unusually poorly.

Meanwhile, the Tigers will cross Bass Strait to face North Melbourne at Bellerive Oval in the first of six matches to be played on Super Saturday. Another loss could see the club’s top four hopes further drift away.

Dogs upset Swans in SCG thriller
One of the upsets of the season unfolded at the SCG when the Western Bulldogs, seemingly a team in disarray following the departures of their captain, coach, CEO and a former Brownlow Medallist at the end of last season, upstaged last year’s beaten grand finalists, the Sydney Swans, in wet conditions.

The events of the off-season from hell appears to have been forgotten at the Whitten Oval, with Luke Beveridge’s pups starting this season in such impressive fashion with wins over the West Coast Eagles, Richmond, the Adelaide Crows and now the Swans.

After coughing up the first two goals of the game, the Bulldogs took control with five straight goals seeing them take a shock lead into quarter-time. From there, they would hold their nerve to win by four points and thus prove that their impressive win over the previously unbeaten Crows was no fluke.

It now remains to be seen what else the Western Bulldogs can achieve in their first year under rookie coach Luke Beveridge. With matches against last year’s bottom three to come in the next month, as well as those against Fremantle and Port Adelaide, the club could be in a strong position entering their Round 11 bye.

Meanwhile, the Swans will be left to rue their poor decision making in trying conditions, and will need to improve before they face Melbourne at the MCG this Saturday night.

Suns get off the mark for 2015 in style
After several weeks of criticism following their unexpectedly poor start to the season, which included losing to each of last year’s bottom three teams, the Gold Coast Suns logged their first win for the year, and first under coach Rodney Eade, with a 64-point thumping of the Brisbane Lions in the ninth edition of the QClash.

The Lions, who have underperformed this season despite acquiring premiership stars Dayne Beams and Allen Christensen during the off-season, lost their captain Tom Rockliff during an evenly contested first quarter and were non-competitive throughout as they crashed to their fifth straight loss to start the year.

By contrast, the Suns will be relieved to have finally notched their first win for the year, despite having premiership players Gary Ablett Jr and Nick Malceski, as well as 2010 number one draft pick, David Swallow, on the sidelines due to injury.

Much has been said of the club’s struggles to win without Ablett in the side; in fact, the victory marked just their second in a premiership match when he wasn’t playing, their biggest marginal victory without him and their biggest marginal in a QClash match.

It now remains to be seen whether the Suns can back up their impressive win next week, when they will welcome the Adelaide Crows to the holiday strip for the first time since mid-2013.

The Lions, meanwhile, will be involved in their second-straight bottom-of-the-table clash when they travel to Melbourne to face Carlton next Sunday, in the match to be televised on Channel Seven.

Hawks’ unsociable brand brutalises North
Hawthorn’s bid for a three-peat got back on track when they thrashed the inconsistent North Melbourne by ten goals at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

However, the win may come at a huge cost with captain Luke Hodge and vice-captain Jordan Lewis set to be looked at following incidents in a heated first quarter whereby Hodge tangled with opposing skipper Andrew Swallow and Lewis struck Todd Goldstein with his arm.

If either are suspended, it could ruin the Hawks’ first trip to Spotless Stadium, where they will face an under-siege (but otherwise improving) GWS Giants on Saturday, on a commercial perspective for the AFL’s youngest club.

The Hawks can ill-afford to lose their two leaders with defenders Brian Lake and James Frawley already sidelined due to injury. They’ll also be smarting after very nearly losing to the Giants at the MCG in Round 11 last year.

The physical aggression of the two-time defending premiers revived memories of the “unsociable football” brand which they used to great effect en route to winning the 2008 premiership at the expense of the Geelong Cats.

On Saturday night it proved to be successful as they racked up yet another win by more than 60 points, following on from their wins of the Sydney Swans in the grand final last year, the Geelong Cats in Round 1 and the Western Bulldogs in Round 3.

It was also their highest score of the season to date and the potential is there for another bigger score when they face the Giants in Sydney next Saturday.

Eagles shrink the Giants down to size
In my Round 5 preview, I warned that the GWS Giants should enjoy their best start to a season ever while they could, because if there was ever a time where they would be sent crashing back down to earth, it was on Saturday night.

Their 87-point humiliation by the West Coast Eagles in Perth was their worst performance for a very long time, as they confronted the team that has (and will continue to) regularly bullied them since entering the AFL in 2012.

The Giants got put on the back foot right from the very start when the Eagles won the first clearance of the match, setting up Josh Kennedy to kick the first goal of the match within the opening minute. His eventual haul of six means he has now kicked 17 goals in his last two outings against the AFL’s youngest club.

The Eagles’ win further cements their reputation as “flat-track bullies”, something coach Adam Simpson keeps refusing to buy into. He simply insisted that the Eagles were aware that the Giants had improved since their last meeting and were looking to shut them down, which they did with great success.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ worst marginal defeat for nearly twelve months will plunge them into a lot of media scrutiny and with two-time reigning premiers Hawthorn to visit their Sydney base for the first time this Saturday, the period of criticism that started with the Eagles loss won’t look like ending after next week, either.

It represented a 153-point negative form reversal after they thrashed the Gold Coast Suns by 11 goals last week. Despite the huge loss, the Giants remain in the eight but their percentage dropped from 133.2 down to 102.9 and they dropped from second at the start of the round down to eighth by the end of it.

They should also be lucky that the finals don’t start until September, because if the ladder is to remain as it is after Round 23, then they’d be travelling to Perth for an elimination final date against the Eagles in week one.

Freo continue unbeaten run
Fremantle remains undefeated following a 68-point win over Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.

The catalyst for the win was a strong second half, in which they kicked ten goals to one despite having Michael Walters and Matthew Pavlich benched for its entirety after both suffered varying injuries in the first half.

It comes to show that the Dockers’ premiership window is still open, despite many predicting that it would lower after the club crashed out of September in straight sets last year.

For the Dees, the loss a huge letdown following their momentous victory over Richmond in Round 4 and it exposed the gulf between them and some of the heavyweights in the AFL.

That being said, the next fortnight won’t offer any immediate respite, with the Sydney Swans and Hawthorn coming up. All they can do is prove that they can match it with the best teams on a regular basis, like they did against Port Adelaide twice last year.

But if they can snatch a win against either the Swans or Hawks, it will do massive wonders for the team’s confidence which, despite gradual on-field improvement under Paul Roos, still remains low from the Dean Bailey and Mark Neeld eras.

The Dockers, meanwhile, will now look forward to welcoming Essendon to their backyard this Saturday night in front of what is expected to be another large crowd.

‘Dons pip Saints in struggle
Both Essendon and St Kilda were looking to bounce back after poor Anzac Day showings against Collingwood and Carlton respectively and it was the Bombers who prevailed in a highly-entertaining struggle at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

The lead changed hands eleven times and scores were level on a few occasions as the Saints sought their second win of the season and first against a Victorian club since beating the Bombers in the corresponding match last year, however it was the Bombers who held their nerve and moved to a 3-2 record for the year.

Former favourite son Brendon Goddard was booed everytime he touched the ball, Saints fans not forgetting his departure from the club at the end of 2012 as the club underwent a transition period under then-coach Scott Watters, brought about by the shock departure of Ross Lyon at the end of the 2011 season.

His 28 touches were influential as the Bombers won by two points, but had they won by a bigger margin they could have entered the eight and replaced the GWS Giants, heavy losers to the West Coast Eagles on Saturday night, there.

Still, the Bombers will be happy about how their season has tracked so far, but things will not get easy when they fly west to face the undefeated Fremantle Dockers on Saturday night.

It will be the fifth straight year in which their only meeting for the season will take place in Perth, something Bombers fans may not be happy about as the team has not had a home game against the Dockers since 2010.

Power wins Showdown XXXVIII
The round concluded with Port Adelaide continuing their resurgence at the expense of their cross-town rivals the Adelaide Crows at the Oval.

The Crows were looking to bounce back after the Western Bulldogs brought them crashing back down to earth last week, while the Power were seeking to continue their recent good form which saw them defeat North Melbourne and Hawthorn by eight points each in the last fortnight.

Despite the challenges posed by the home team (the Crows), the Power led at every change and went on to win by 24 points, with Robbie Gray, who had been in doubt for the match with injury, winning the Showdown Medal with 32 touches.

The Crows will be disappointed about their efforts, and now it appears as if their red-hot start to the season, in which they won their opening three matches by an average of 63 points, is quickly being forgotten.

Still, they should start favourites to beat the Gold Coast Suns next Saturday at Metricon Stadium, despite the Suns coming off an impressive 64-point win over the Brisbane Lions in QClash IX.

The Power, meanwhile, will look forward to welcoming the red-hot West Coast Eagles to the Oval next week in which the Eagles’ reputation as “flat-track bullies” will be put to the test, despite Adam Simpson’s men being higher than the Power on the ladder.

Having a look at the ladder now and it’s Fremantle who is setting the pace, as the only undefeated side after five rounds. Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs are not far behind, each with only one loss for the season to date.

Seven teams, ranging from Hawthorn (4th) to Port Adelaide (10th), each have three wins and two losses. The Brisbane Lions remain the only side still without a win after five rounds, and their clash against Carlton at Etihad Stadium on Sunday could decide which team finishes on the bottom of the ladder after Round 6.