GWS almost caused a mighty upset against Geelong, Carlton beat North Melbourne in the Friday night spotlight and St Kilda honoured one of its greats in Lenny Hayes with a demolition of the Dockers.

With still four games to go in the round, it did get me thinking about how I had predicted the season unfolding, clubs on the rise and trends to watch.

Earlier this year in the Bendigo Advertiser, I made three simple predictions and I am reasonably confident there will be three ticks.

Firstly, the trend of teams focusing on attack as much as defence is a definite tick. 

The best teams in the league all have very strong team defence, but they are also the most damaging in attack. 

Hawthorn and Sydney’s forward line lead the way, while Geelong continues to surprise. 

Even the very dour Dockers have highlighted a need to score more heavily if they are a chance to win in September.

Then there was the brave prediction of all current 18 club coaches who started 2014, keeping their jobs for 2015.  This was calculated as most coaches were either first year coaches, had runs on the board or are very experienced.  

The two coaches that are possibilities to prove me wrong head up Essendon and Carlton. 

Nobody knows what Essendon will do, not even Essendon, and Mick Malthouse is safe unless he decides the game and the additional expectations have passed him by.

Finally, I believed some power AFL clubs would miss the eight and this is a certainty. 

Richmond and Carlton will miss, West Coast has underachieved although riddled by injuries and one of Collingwood or Adelaide look set to miss.

Although, not declared publicly, I did get some predictions off the mark. 

Sydney finishing fifth is a miss, and I predicted the Bulldogs to be a side pressing for the final eight. 

They will finish strong again, but will need to start 2015 stronger to contest for finals.