AFL Roundup: Mistimed hiccups for Lions and Power as Premiership favourites march on

Aaron Murphy

Melbourne players raucously celebrate their stirring win over the reigning premiers.Daniel Pockett / AFL Photos / Getty Images via AFP

The league's top-three teams all continued their winning streaks and stand out as the leading contenders, whilst Geelong look to be sleeping giants once again.

The numbers that matter

The big winners of Round 6

In front of the biggest Sydney derby crowd ever seen, the Sydney Swans shredded GWS Giants despite a testing fourth quarter challenge from the men in orange that threatened to see them run home winners.

Sydney reassumed control of the derby and booted six of its last seven goals to run out very convincing 41-point winners and retain their top ladder position.

Emulating the all-conquering defensive structures of Paul Roos that made the Premiership-winning Swans a bit ugly to watch but tough to get past, Dean Cox's side has conceded fewer than 70 points in each of their five wins so far, whilst scoring at least 99 in return to show they're not just about dragging down their opposition into a scrap.

They were assisted by the Giants failing to apply scoreboard pressure in the third term when kicking a wasteful 2.8, but still showed admirable resolve in the final term when the Giants sharpened up.

"The pleasing part is that when it mattered, we put our foot down and ran away with it and won pretty easily in the end," said best on ground Nick Blakey.

"Probably in previous years, we might have got rolled in a game like that, especially last year."

They face an undermanned and wounded Bulldogs at the perfect time, and with games against Melbourne (home), North Melbourne (away) and Collingwood (home) to follow, an 8-1 record in mid-May is not out of the question.

The big losers of Round 6

What in the world is going on at Carlton and does anybody in the coaching staff have control of their squad and their destiny?

We respect Elijah Hollands' privacy and would not even begin to speculate on what was afflicting him during their five-point loss to Collingwood, but it was clear from as early as the pre-game warmup that something was not right.

Hollands was struggling to kick the ball straight prior to the match and appeared to be behaving erratically at best and completely disoriented at worst as he notched up one possession despite playing 84% of the first three quarters, before finally being pulled back by Michael Voss to sit out the remainder of the fourth.

Being effectively down to 17 men on the ground killed off their chances of a massive win that would have had them 2-4 instead of 1-5 and surely instilled a bit of sorely needed confidence and belief in the side.

Instead, we're all being left to wonder how 20 other players and more than one dozen coaches and support staff did not sense that something was wrong with Hollands during and before the match let alone take the necessary action to withdraw him from the game and activate an emergency.

It leaves a bitter taste in all of our mouths and gives Michael Voss yet another unwanted distraction as he seeks to save some of the dwindling faith in his ability to get this squad into the finals.

We send our love and best wishes to Elijah upon hearing of his hospitalisation on Monday evening and hope he's back to full health as soon as possible. His teammates and coaches have a lot of work ahead of them with trips to Fremantle and Brisbane to come in the next three weeks.

Who kicked big bags this round?

Geelong waited more than 30 years for a player to kick 10+ in a game after Gary Ablett Sr last did in 1994, and all of a sudden Jeremy Cameron has done so twice in 13 matches!

He shot up into the top five of the Coleman Medal with ten at the weekend. Paul Curtis (North Melbourne) was next best with six. Taylor Walker, Nick Watson and Jye Amiss chipped in with five each.