• Nine things we learned from round two
• Fantasy round review: Rain can't bog down the Dockers

 JOHN Longmire will well remember that the North Melbourne 1999 premiership side he played in started the season with two straight defeats.

And the old-timers around that club still talk about the breakthrough 1975 premiership, the first won by the Kangaroos and a feat all the more meritorious given the 0-4 start to the season.

So the message from the Sydney Swans coach after back to back losses will not be one of panic.

The 2005 team that he served as an assistant coach to Paul Roos won its first game but then just one of its next five. The Brisbane Lions of 2001 were 1-3 after four outings.

But there are concerns for the Swans and they centre around fitness and the forward line.

The Swans have faded badly in the final quarter of both games so far. They were outscored by 35 points in the season opener against Greater Western Sydney, and then by 17 points by Collingwood on Saturday night. Had the Pies kicked straighter than 3.7 in the final quarter, the final result may well have been greater.

There were matches towards the end of last year when the Swans didn’t run games out, but that was put down to a depleted team that was battered and bruised from the premiership campaign the year before. The Swans were cooked, to borrow a phrase from the modern footy vernacular.

Given that teams are supposed to be at their fittest at the start of the year, it remains to be seen what steps the Swans can take to start running games out. At least this week they face the similarly winless Adelaide, whose final quarters so far this year - a 56-point deficit - have been even worse.

As for the Swans' forward line, Longmire's best-laid plans when recruiting Lance Franklin to the club can't be executed until Kurt Tippett returns from a knee injury and that is still several weeks away.

But for now the Swans are in disarray close to goal. They haven't worked out in the interim how best to utilise Franklin, who battled hard on Saturday night for his two goals, and they don’t have a hulking marking target close to goal.

Dons, Crows misfiring

Mind you, the Swans aren't the only team with forward-line issues. The recruitment of James Podsiadly has yielded little so far for Adelaide and Lewis Johnson and Shaun McKernan struggled badly in the Showdown. Granted, Eddie Betts was a terrific performer but he is supposed to complement a good forward line, not be the focal point.

Essendon is another side whose dysfunctional forward line cost it a win. Joe Daniher and Jake Carlisle were schooled in the first half at Etihad Stadium by the undersized Josh Gibson and Kyle Cheney and it was only after half-time, when the Bombers midfielders lowered their eyes and kicked to their smalls, that they got back into the game.



Jake Carlisle was part of the Bombers' misfiring forward line against Hawthorn. Picture: AFL Media

Carlton's small forwards got it back into the game against Richmond last Thursday, but how dearly would Mick Malthouse like to settle Lachie Henderson and Jarrad Waite as his one-two punch up forward.

Now, there are teams that are getting things right. St Kilda's toughness around the ball has been a feature, but so too has Nick Riewoldt, who kicked five goals against the Giants on Saturday and might already have six Brownlow votes to his name.

Of course there is another dimension to this talk about key forwards, and it is whether they are integral to team success as they used to be. Franklin, with 102 goals in 2008, was the last AFL centurion and coaches talk incessantly about the need to share the goalkicking load and be less predictable going forward.

But there is a sense of comfort for a team to have a big bloke close to goal that can clunk some marks and kick some goals. And right now, some teams with serious finals aspirations are struggling in that respect.

QUESTION TIME

Which West Australian team will lose first?
It's not out of the question that the round seven clash between West Coast and Fremantle could be the clash of the unbeaten. Freo's toughest match until then might be its next one: Friday night against the Hawks at the MCG in the Grand Final rematch. But the Hawks are hobbled and the Dockers should start favourites. West Coast has Geelong at Simonds and Port Adelaide at home. It's a tougher run than Freo's, but Adam Simpson has the Eagles in cruise mode.

What was it that Robert Walls once said to Kevin Sheedy and how does that affect Paul Roos?
I can't quote it verbatim but it was something along the lines of "You haven't truly coached until you have coached a bottom side." And after Melbourne's 93-point hammering from West Coast at the MCG on Sunday, his worst ever result as a coach, Roos can now say he is complete.

10 possessions and two goals in the final quarter. So how marvellous is Boomer Harvey?
The good news for the Kangaroos is that Brent Harvey is still there when they need something special to win a football match. The bad news for the Kangaroos is that they still need something special from Brent Harvey in order to win a football match.



Ashley Browne: The umpires have changed their tune. If contact is incidental, they now tend to let it go. It is a commonsense approach but leaves it more open to the umpires to make a judgement call. Full-backs will be pleased. They seem to be able to get away with more scragging than they have for years.



AB: Collingwood, from Hawthorn and Port Adelaide. I really liked how the Pies kept at it and finally broke the Swans open. As I have already noted, if they'd kicked straighter, it could have been a thumping win. Hawthorn showed great ticker to kick two late goals to wrest back the lead from Essendon, while Port Adelaide revelled in the big occasion that was the first game at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.



Ashley Browne: Look at Brenton Sanderson's comments post-game. He gave pass marks to six players - Richard Douglas, Rory Sloane, Eddie Betts, David Mackay, Daniel Talia and Brodie Smith - and said the rest could do with a session looking at themselves in the mirror. Not a forward among them. What was noticeable watching the game was that the Crows seemed to win enough of the ball in midfield, but rarely looked the goods close to goal. Port was clinical, by contrast.



AB: I did tweet late on Thursday night that the 62,000 crowd for Richmond-Carlton was a disappointment. It was a warm and steamy night and actually great to be outdoors, but the game lost some spark given it wasn’t the first of the year. I'm not sure what the answer is for the AFL and the early weeks of next year's draw shape as more complicated again because of the cricket World Cup. Perhaps the new variable pricing was a factor; perhaps that both clubs lost first up.



AB: This deserves a 'Yes, but' response. Yes, the Bombers had four players out of their best 22 missing from their side, but Hawthorn had five including a four-time best and fairest (Sam Mitchell), another best and fairest (Brad Sewell) and last year's Norm Smith medalist (Brian Lake). Add Ben Stratton and Ryan Schoenmakers and I humbly submit the Hawks were missing more quality than the Bombers. And they also had one debutant, a second-gamer and a third-gamer of their own. The Hawks have enjoyed many fine wins in recent years, but this was up with them.



AB: And there's that, too.



AB: It's a big call to make unless you are intimately involved in the workings of the Essendon Football Club. But what we can say is that the Bombers are in great hands for the year with Thompson, a dual premiership coach, and it would appear the players are working hard for him. And based on what we have seen so far, his post-match media conferences will be appointment viewing.



AB: Lots of responses late Saturday afternoon to my Twitter plea to hear from St Kilda supporters. They love the toughness around the footy, the immediate impact of Luke Dunstan and Eli Templeton and the leadership of Riewoldt. But how good was Tom Hickey? The former Suns ruckman kicked three goals and took eight marks, more than holding his own with Shane Mumford in what was easily his best game in his year and a bit at Seaford. So far the Saints have beaten Melbourne and the Giants, so let's not break out the bubbly, but you could mount a fair case that the pieces of the puzzle are coming together ahead of schedule for Alan Richardson.

Twitter: @afl_hashbrowne