With six weeks of the marathon run, the line between contenders and pretenders is becoming much more opaque.

Although 94.4% of the competition's 18-teams have now put a win on the board, the gap between first and last is still chasmic.

As we edged toward the end of the season's second month, the question marks surrounding every side – whether they are leading the league or languishing – are still aplenty.

With Round 7 set to start this Friday night, we have cast an eye across each of the league's combatants and have sought to answer the key questions facing each and every one of them.

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Hawthorn

Can they go back-to-back?

Should you raise the notion of going back-to-back to any Hawthorn fan above the age of 40, then they are likely to cast their minds back to happier days filled with permed mullets, acid washed jeans and premiership glory.

However, should you place a caveat of contemporariness from your request, then these fans of the currently 2-4 team are likely to simply be content with consecutive regular season wins.

With the Hawks finally ending a month long stretch without a cigar last week, these birds of prey will be eyeing their next victim this Saturday evening – the spectacularly hapless Saints.

Can these current Hawks repeat their efforts of 1988-89 in even the most marginal sense? Absolutely.

With their opponents conceding an average of 103.5 points per game this season, as well as appearing desperate to turn the football over, Alistair Clarkson's convocation need only to be awake to theoretically stand a chance of victory.

Still, with both of the Saints' twin rucking towers expected to play this weekend, should they finally return to their form of last season, these forty-something year-old Hawthorn fanatics may have to be content with dusting off their VHS tapes if they wish to see footage of back-to-back success brought by those in brown and gold guernseys.

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