Both last year's grand finalists, West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans, recorded wins in round two of the AFL  -- the reigning premier Eagles being one of only four clubs including surprise packets Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide to have made perfect starts to season 2007.

The standout team performance from the round came from the final match on Easter Monday, with Hawthorn putting on a diabolical round one performance behind them with a magnificent display to record a 22-point win over an injury riddled Melbourne at the MCG for their first win of 2007 17.14.116 to 14.10.94.

The young Hawks side, tipped by many experts to be the big improvers this season, set up their victory in the middle two quarters where they were full of running, particularly across half-back were they tore the Demons apart. Mark Williams kicked six goals and Lance Franklin was a linchpin at centre-half-forward. Ruckman Tim Boyle, whose career thus far has been stalled by consistent injury, played one the best games in his promising career with three goals and Rick Ladson shut out Aaron Davey while collecting 26 possessions himself. Trailing by over seven goals and with their two main forwards in David Neitz and Russell Robertson both off the ground with knee injuries, the Demons made a surprise rally in the final term to kick six unanswered goals to reduce the margin to seven points midway through the quarter, only for the Hawks to steady in the final minutes.
The Eagles had to fight for four quarters to shake off a dogged and determined Collingwood side at Subiaco in Perth. After unfurling their 2006 premiership flag in front of their rapturous home crowd, the Eagles received a greater challenge than they had expected from the Magpies after the Eagles had made a positive start. The Magpies fought back to lead by seven points at the first change, holding on to a four point lead at half time.

West Coast started to exert their authority in the third quarter with the star duo of Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr controlling the midfield, grabbing back the lead in the third quarter. But to the Magpies' credit, they refused to lie down and held on to keep the deficit down to three points at the final change. The class of the Eagles started to shine through in the last quarter, West Coast getting superb run out of defence from Brett Jones and Brett Staker provided a target up forward. Skill errors started to prove costly for the Magpies and in the end it was the Eagles superior skill level that saw them secure their 12.15.87 to 11.9.75 victory.

Last year's losing grand finalist Sydney were also made to work hard for their 13.10.88 to 11.6.72 victory over Richmond. In their game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground since last year's loss in the premiership decider at the ground, the Swans recovered from a sluggish opening five minutes to patiently wait for the openings to arrive to slam home five unanswered goals. The Swans should have put the games out of the Tigers reach in the second quarter but were wasteful near goal, kicking an inaccurate 2.6 for the term.

Richmond who had been more defensively minded in the first half opened up more in the second half to keep the margin to four points at three quarter time. Sydney's defence held firm in the last quarter with Tadgh Kennelly, Ben Matthews and Leo Barry all among the Swans best in the clinches. Sydney were dealt an early blow when key forward and co-captain Barry Hall hyper-extended his knee in the first quarter in a collision with Tiger defender Darren Gasper.


After initial indications that his game was over, Hall did return to the ground but was largely ineffective, the spearhead's loss more than covered for by recruit Peter Everitt. After a poor debut for the Swans in Round 1, Everitt was the clear best on ground, kicking two goals as well as winning 15 possessions and 27 hit-outs in the ruck

Port Adelaide's promising season start continued at AAMI Stadium with a home win over the Kangaroos. Poor kicking at goal nearly proved to costly for the Power. Port Adelaide peppered the goals in the first but could only manage 2.7 for the quarter and instead of holding the commanding lead they should have, the Power actually found themselves four points down at quarter time.


The Kangaroos looked dangerous early in the second quarter with forward Corey Jones enjoying a purple patch kicking all of his four goals in the second quarter but the Power started to dominate in the midfield and with that the scoreboard. Port Adelaide led by 10-points and with Danyle Pearce, Brett Ebert and the Burgoyne brothers Peter and Shaun all starring, the Power extended that to 33-points midway in the third quarter. Brent Harvey was the standout for the Kangaroos with 26 possessions and four goals that kept his side in the match late in the third quarter and early in the final quarter but ultimately his efforts were futile with Port winning taking the points 17.20.122 to 15.14.104.

Essendon made two wins from as many matches with the resurgent Bombers outclassing Fremantle by 10-points at Melbourne's Telstra Dome. The Bombers, last year's 15th placed side played much better football than their opponents and were full of run and have definitely had an injection of pace since last year, the strong work of the Bombers midfield superbly finished off by key forwards Matthew Lloyd (4 goals) and Scott Lucas (5 goals) who is continuing on from his career best form from last year.

In spite of all that Essendon were doing right, they couldn't completely shake off the Dockers. In a promising sign for Fremantle, new forward duo of captain Matthew Pavlich and recruit Chris Tarrant teamed well for four goals apiece that kept the Dockers in the hunt and they had little support, especially from a lapse prone Dockers defence allowing Essendon to keep the Dockers at arms length to win 19.8.122 to 17.10.112.

Adelaide recorded a surprise victory over the Western Bulldogs in the Sunday twilight game and the Telstra Dome, outrunning a listless and ragged Bulldogs 16.14.110 to 11.6.72. The bitterly disappointing performance from the Bulldogs earned the Doggies players a stunning public rebuke from coach Rodney Eade in the post match press conference, Eade telling reporters “You're dealing with human beings, they're worse than horses - at least with horses, you know you can get a whip on them and give them a bit of a crack,"

"The easiest answer to go to is, subconsciously, do we believe our own publicity?”

Eade always named and shamed established players including Brad Johnson, Lindsay Gilbee, Jason Akermanis Daniel Giansiracusa and Ryan Griffen as among the Bulldogs worst on the day.

The Bulldogs failures on the night should not take away from the Crows performance, Adelaide tearing up the Bulldogs in the second and third quarters, kicking 10 goals to two in that time, the Crows managing to shut down the Bulldogs' much-vaunted running game while getting there own game in full swing. Andrew McLeod led the way for the Crows with 35 possessions with Scott Welsh and Nathan Bock led the goalkickers with four goals apiece.

Round two started on Thursday night for the Easter break with Brisbane far too good for a lacklustre St. Kilda at the Gabba, claiming an impressive 52-point win. Jonathon Brown showed that his return from injury is on track with five goals, Daniel Merrett showed that he may well be a viable proposition at fullback with a fine performance on Fraser Gehrig and Justin Sherman starred in the midfield and forward line with three goals in the Lions' 15.12.102 to 7.8.50 scoreline.

In the round's other match, Carlton encouraging start to 2007 came crashing back to earth, the Blues on the receiving end of a 78-point thumping. Cameron Mooney and Nathan Ablett kicked five goals each and Nathan's brother Gary Ablett Jnr, was among the Cats best. The 24.18.162 to 12.12.84 created two records for Geelong, their highest score and greatest winning margin over Carlton.