LAST Saturday, I saw something I had never seen before — two teams, Adelaide and Collingwood, playing sideways.

It was like the old days when television pictures used to go on a slant and you would have to twiddle with a knob at the back called the vertical hold.

This game needed a vertical hold.

The ball was suddenly speeding from one side of the ground to the other and back again. Commentator Tony Shaw said they should put the goal posts on the wings.

This, I assume, is what happens when two teams that are deeply schooled in the defensive theory meet.

Perchance, the next game I saw was Essendon v Brisbane Lions. The football Essendon plays is the exact opposite of what I had seen earlier in the day. This side plays football like the Man from Snowy River rode horses downhill. There is a World Youth Day quality about the Bombers. They play like young believers, which is a credit to the man generating the belief, coach Matthew Knights.

But by far the best game I saw last weekend was Hawthorn v Sydney. If you took the defensive toughness of the Collingwood v Adelaide match and fitted it with Essendon's bold plan of attack, you would have the Hawks in the second quarter of Sunday's game. The Hawks were as quick and direct as Essendon but hard with it. Hard as axes. Sydney is the strangler. It had throttled the Hawks on the past five occasions. Last Sunday, Hawthorn broke the grip. Brutally almost, but with fine lashings of skill. It was the amount of force Hawthorn summoned and then controlled that took my eye.

Hawthorn is coached by Alistair Clarkson, a man with a temper. Maybe that's no bad thing. The Hawks played last weekend with a crude, uncomplicated vigour that reminded me of the old John Kennedy Hawthorn sides. And lots of people are now talking about Luke Hodge. Big-time player, Hodge. Watch his contributions at vital moments when games are tight. He's the one who has the big idea and pulls it off. He hits the winners.

For the second week, the Swans came back when I thought they were gone. For the second week, Brett Kirk was terrific. His side is struggling. The suspension of Barry Hall by the club, the publicising of Hall's private life and the referral of the decision about when he can play again to a psychologist, has to have unsettled the Swans. To say they believe in unity is not enough. They eat it and drink it. It's their creed. Kirk is Captain Unity. He's holding them together at the moment.

As always, the Swans were brave. Twice Irishman Tadhg Kennelly's dislocated left shoulder slipped out; twice it was put back in by trainers. Once, he half-went for the ball with the arm out of its socket and dangling. Sydney's ability to come back when all appears lost is phenomenal but last weekend, despite its most obdurate efforts, Hawthorn kept skipping out of reach.

As I have seen Hawthorn this year, it keeps improving. One of its improvements has come from Mark Williams finding a way to play the spaces of the half-forward line. The Hawks now have a forward line that boasts Buddy Franklin, Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli and Williams. That's not exactly Buddy Holly and the Crickets, but as a quartet they're pretty compelling to watch.

Buddy leapt into the air at the weekend like a giraffe who wanted to try out as a gazelle. I knew he could run, swerve, turn, drop, prop, mark and kick. But I didn't know he could rise to a height that would put him on nodding terms with patrons in the first tier. As for Williams, I thought the emergence of Roughead and Buddy signalled the end of his troubled career, but he looks a much better player to me now. There's more ease and variety to his game. As for Rioli, his contributions are quick, canny and exact.

But it would be a great mistake to overlook or disregard the fourth member of the quartet, Roughead. He is a lot more skilful than his hulking size may suggest.

He's also quicker over the first few yards. He's built like a concrete pillar and can take a pack mark. And he's playing for keeps. Roughead is the sort of player who'll pop up in a grand final when all the focus is elsewhere.

And so the season enjoys an early climax. Geelong play the Dogs today and the Hawks next week. Collingwood waits in the wings, without Anthony Rocca but also without any fear of the reigning premier. Two facts stand out to me at this point. One is you've got to have luck to win a premiership. The other is that the Western Bulldogs, previously Footscray, is not a club with a history of luck.

But this year, the Bulldogs have had some. They beat Hawthorn convincingly in Launceston but the Hawks were without Hodge as well as Shane Crawford and Brent Guerra. Age may have wearied Crawford but is he still a smart player. Guerra ties together their defence. Now the Dogs meet Geelong without Gary Ablett and Cameron Ling — that's a bit like a rowing crew without its stroke and its cox. When I spent a year with the Dogs in 1993, I remember being told how rarely the club had ever won at Geelong. If the Dogs win today, we are in for one of the best finishes to a season in years.