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At three-quarter time on Sunday with Melbourne trailing GWS by 19 points, the Demons looked set to to again dominate the headlines for all the wrong reasons for another poor performance.
However Melbourne rallied, booting 12 last quarter goals against their young opponents to record their first win of the season and take the heat off them for at least a week, although there are some off-field matters such as the drugs controversy, which they are currently dealing with.
That victory may also give the Demons plenty of confidence to upset Brisbane, who were one of the big disappointments of Round 4 and have been ordinary in the first month of the season after winning the NAB Cup grand final.
The Western Bulldogs are where we thought they might be. Down near the bottom and barely competitive with the Round 1 thumping of the Lions not great form now, a distant memory and really an aberration.
They were terrible in the wet against Adelaide, not scoring for almost two quarters and going goalless for nearly three, to register their lowest score in matches against the Crows.
The Dogs’ on-field woes are going to get much worse though, and possibly as soon as next week when they meet the undefeated Cats.
The Bulldogs have injuries to key players and have a poor list when at full strength anyway, and there’s a good chance Geelong could destroy them like Essendon did to Melbourne in Round 2, when they thrashed them by 148 points.
The Gold Coast Suns were also below par on the weekend in what was certainly their worst effort of the season, going down to Port Adelaide by 38 points.
Port has certainly improved and incredibly are just one of three teams yet to taste defeat, but the Suns were at home and started really well to be in front at quarter-time, but couldn’t sustain it.
That performance was reminiscent of their first two years in the competition where they generally played one excellent quarter, only to drop off at an alarming rate.
Those days should be long gone, especially at home. They have to be much more competitive than that at Carrara.
Okay, Port are much better than most of us thought but that was a winnable game for the Suns, and they have enough talent that has played plenty of footy to produce four-quarter efforts more often than not.
Their excellent start on the weekend was once again led by the great Gray Ablett, who had 15 disposals in the opening term but then was restricted after quarter-time to 35 for the match, which is still superb.
However most of his teammates didn’t take up the slack in the second-quarter when Port put the clamps on him, and the Suns badly fell away allowing the Power to setup a match-winning advantage.
In Round 1, when they surprised St Kilda at home, Ablett produced one of the best individual performances ever seen since and dragged his team over the line.
Harley Bennell, fast becoming the Suns’ second best player, gave him great support that night but was absent against Port and badly missed.
Experienced campaigners like Jarrod Harbrow and Michael Rischitelli have been handy since joining the Suns, but not as consistent as they could be and their early draft picks other than Bennell.
Number one selection David Swallow, Dion Prestia, ruckman Zac Smith and key forwards Sam Day, Tom Lynch and Charlie Dixon have all shown glimpses of their considerable talent in matches.
But the poor days still outnumber their good ones and coach Guy McKenna can’t keep using the excuse that they are still developing and haven’t played much footy at this level yet.
There was heat on the former champion West Coast player last season in his second year as the Suns coach after they lost their first 14 matches, but he survived and received a contract extension.
They have improved since then but should be more advanced. Maybe Saturday’s fadeout will be rare this year. All teams are allowed the occasional shocker.
It can’t be repeated on a regular basis, though, because the AFL gave the Gold Coast a head start to set up their future by monopolising the first round picks of the 2010 Draft.
The league has to start seeing proof in the pudding that the new franchises are moving in the right direction consistently. There are good signs and the first three quarters against Melbourne by the GWS Giants showed again they certainly are.
The Suns need to ensure the Giants, who are only in their second season in the comp, don’t go past them this year.
If they do, there were will need to be changes at the Suns, and guess where they will more than likely look first?
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