That's four rounds done and dusted and we have just one undefeated team left in North Melbourne.

Round four saw the Premiers narrowly escape defeat, Adelaide make their intentions clear and the demise of both Richmond and Collingwood.

Winner: North Melbourne

I'll kick things off on a positive note and the form of North Melbourne has been nothing but positive as the club has set themselves up for a massive season following four straight wins to start the year.

North has benefited from having a harder start to the season overcoming both Adelaide and most recently Fremantle - all be it, a disappointing Dockers side - as well as wins over Brisbane and Melbourne. Scoring hasn't been a problem with 100+ scores in all of their matches so far with their forward line ticking along nicely, as I predicted in pre-season! The only area of concern at the moment could be their defence, having conceded 232 points in their past two matches.

With that being said, North Melbourne are sitting pretty at the top of the ladder - a position they haven't occupied in 18 years - with a trip to the Gold Coast to come this weekend and Brad Scott and co will be looking to continue their fine start to the season.

Loser: Friday Night Footy

For the second week in a row and perhaps even for the third week, we've seen a disappointing contest in the AFL's prime timeslot of Friday night. West Coast dismantled a poor Richmond side and ended up coasting home by 68 points, in a round where Adelaide and Sydney - both top eight sides - were playing on Saturday night (a Foxtel exclusive game).

The previous week saw Port Adelaide defeat Essendon by 61 points, who shouldn't really be getting any Friday night games this season and they have two in 2016 as well as a Thursday night game. That round too saw the undefeated Bulldogs and Hawthorn play on a Sunday afternoon and the West Australian derby was played on Saturday night (again a Foxtel game).

Friday night should represent the match of the round, its a standalone game and all the attention is on the two sides that take the field and for three rounds this year that hasn't been the case. Is it down to the media rights, the fixture being released in October, the bargaining chips of the 'big' clubs? Whatever the reason, it needs to be sorted out because the AFL stand to lose from having these sort of games on Friday nights. Thankfully we'll all be glued to our seats when Hawthorn take on Adelaide this weekend.

Winner: Adelaide

Many had written them off this year due to the loss of Dangerfield but the Crows have certainly shown that one man doesn't make a footy club and they've definitely overachieved in the early rounds. From what we've seen so far, the Crows won't suffer without their one-time superstar.

Midfield grit and a genuine team performance underpinned the club's excellent win over Sydney on Saturday night and a showdown with Hawthorn this Friday night shapes as the match of round five. Win this week and Crows' fans may already be asking: Patrick who?

Losers: Port Adelaide and Fremantle

Both of these sides are/were expected to contend for a premiership this season, particularly Port Adelaide who underperformed last season and still have the same great list that wowed us in 2014 and its even stronger now with Charlie Dixon on board. Fremantle however are rooted equal bottom with Carlton and no one expected that last season's minor premiers would be heading into round five sitting 0-4.

Port Adelaide have been far from their best this season with wins over St Kilda and Essendon and heavy losses to cross-town rivals Adelaide and GWS this past weekend. They're currently sitting 11th and face a big challenge on Saturday night with the visit of the 3-1 Cats who are disappointed with their own form in recent weeks. Despite facing Richmond, Brisbane and Carlton in the proceeding weeks, there are no easy wins for Port and they need to rediscover their form quickly in order to revive their season.

Fremantle should be really sitting at 2-2 with a winnable game against the Suns in round 2 and then the derby in round 3 which leading up to it, could of gone anywhere. Their two interstate games have been losses to both the Dogs and North, two sides despite their strong form should of been dealt with by a side who finished top and made a prelim in 2015. On paper, Freo should get their first win of the season this weekend against Carlton at home, but that win streak will probably end there with games against the Crows and Giants to follow. As the top side, the draw isn't going to be easy and Fremantle will need to show more than they did last year to get their season back on track.

Winner: St Kilda

Although they didn't get up on the weekend, all be it undeserving, I like the way St Kilda are going about things this year. Apart from the disappointing loss to the Dogs in round 2, the Saints have shown some pretty good bite so far in 2016 and should be sitting at 2-2 instead of 1-3.

To push last season's premiers to the brink of defeat at their fortress in Launceston speaks volumes and St Kilda should be able to build on this and produce a solid season that could see them finish higher-bottom ten or even sneak into the finals. The Saints are travelling well at the moment, their fans know where the club is at, they've got a good coach, decent crop of youngsters and they're feeling confident ahead of games against the Giants and Melbourne in the coming weeks.

Losers: Richmond and Collingwood

For me, these two sides have been the most disappointing Melbourne based sides so far this season and to be sitting 13th and 15th respectively is quite pathetic considering their standards.

Richmond's one win this season wasn't that convincing and they were actually luck to escape Carlton and then the two played off in a shocking standard of football on Friday night in round 2 which saw Collingwood get home by a point. Other than that, both have been shocking and the AFL needs these two sides to be playing finals year in year out.

No two coaches are under more pressure than both Damien Hardwick and Nathan Buckley and one if not both could be facing the chopping bloke if results don't improve. The only way to keep the media off their back is to win.

4 COMMENTS

  1. tell me again how freo should be 2-2? there form (and scoring) has been shocking. they were clearly beaten by both eagles and the suns.. hard to make a argument about they should be anything other then 0-4..

  2. You canโ€™t say last yearโ€™s 2nd and 5th was expected to be such a horrible match in November last year. Like you said, Richmond have been appealing this year, but they wouldnโ€™t have predicted that when making the fixture. Itโ€™s all in hindsight.
    By the way, โ€œshould ofโ€ and โ€œcould ofโ€ is horrid english, almost as bad as Richmond this yearโ€ฆ

  3. If you read the article, I imply that they should be 2-2 based on their form from last season. Going into 2016 Iโ€™m pretty sure they were expected to beat the Suns and the derby would of been a 50/50 game

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