AFL H&V Round 5: Disgraceful Demons and a young Blue's day out

Another round, another Melbourne loss, but this week we saw Carlton nab win No. 1 in 2019. Plus, have we been sleeping on the Bombers and Power?

Here are this week's Heroes and Villains.

HEROES

Brilliant Bombers: It's the Essendon style of play that Bomber fans were craving in the first two weeks of the year. Fast and ferocious with pressure from all sides, and it was a 15 minute patch in the second quarter which blew North Melbourne off the park.

Essendon changed gears midway through Q2#AFLNorthDons pic.twitter.com/Qx5C2hC1DT

— Champion Data AFL (@championdata) April 19, 2019

Leading the way for the Dons were Dylan Shiel, Zach Merrett, Dyson Heppell and Orazio Fantasia. By half time, Shiel had amassed 18 touches, seven inside-50s and had four goal assists, while Merrett and Heppell had 15 and 13 touches in the second quarter alone.

Fantasia chipped in with three first-half goals while Andrew McGrath had two as the Bombers piled on six of the eight second quarter majors to open up a 36 point half time lead, one which ballooned to 58 points by the final siren.

While Good Friday was all about Essendon, the blowtorch surely now goes onto North, in particular coach Brad Scott and skipper Jack Ziebell, who could only find the ball six times and didn't trouble the scorers. Not good enough.

Harry's day out: He's been building and building, and on Easter Sunday he delivered. Harry McKay starred for Carlton, helping the Blues notch their first win of 2019 and first in Melbourne in over 12 months.

McKay booted a game-high four goals and three behinds from his 20 possessions. He also took a game-high 11 marks, five of which were contested and four of which were inside 50. McKay's almost mirrored Lance Franklin's memorable goal at Marvel Stadium when he took the ball at halfway on the boundary and bounced his way to 20m out before spraying the shot. It was just about his only error of the day.

Leading the way with McKay was skipper Patrick Cripps and Sam Petrevski-Seton. The midfield duo had a staggering 51 disposals between them in the opening half and finished up with 72 as well as 18 clearances.

Oh, and a special shout out to young Blue Sam Walsh who kicked truly with just four seconds remaining to push Carlton's score into triple figures for the first time in three years.

Wet weather Power: Footy can be a complicated game at times, but when the rain starts to fall, the best advice is to go back to basics.

While West Coast might be reigning premiers, their controlled style of football does not suit wet conditions. Ken Hinkley and the Power took full advantage of 'going back to basics' on Friday night, outmuscling the Eagles around the contest and bombing the ball inside 50 as often and as unpredictably as they could.

In fact, West Coast's first intercept mark -- one of the stats upon which they build their style of play and helped them to the 2018 flag -- came in the dying minutes of the first half.

In the third quarter, when the rain really started to impact the contest, Port Adelaide won the clearances 17-4, with big bodies Ollie Wines, Tom Rockliff, Travis Boak and Sam Powell-Pepper dominating their West Coast counterparts.

The Eagles finished a staggering -33 in inside 50s, -21 in contested possessions and -6 in tackles. Well done, Port.

VILLAINS

Listless Lions: Mitch Robinson's post-game tweet summed it up best for Brisbane.

Apologies to all the lions fans who turned up to the Gabba, or tuned in to watch us play tonight. Shithouse performance, two disappointing weeks but we'll recover, recoup and get ready for the suns next Saturday. #process

— Mitch Robinson (@MitchRobinson05) April 18, 2019

It was billed as the biggest game to hit the Gabba in a decade, but in the end the Lions put up little fight against a rampant Magpies outfit.

The 62-point loss was the heaviest defeat for Chris Fagan's side since Round 4, 2018 and saw Brisbane fall back into the pack at 3-2 and with an ordinary percentage of 94.

Star recruit Lachie Neale admitted to having a poor night, telling ESPN that Collingwood "outworked us from contest to contest," something which rang true on the stats sheet. Collingwood finished the game +16 in contested possessions, +55 in disposals, +20 in inside 50s and +15 in marks inside 50. Utterly dominant.

Done Dees: You only get so many strikes in this game before you strike out and the Dees have well and truly struck out in season 2019.

Starting the year with three consecutive losses was deplorable, but when Simon Goodwin's side knocked off Sydney last week there appeared to be a glimmer of hope once more. However, another horrific performance now has us drawing a line through them once and for all.

It was yet another game where Melbourne won the inside 50 count but just couldn't impact the scoreboard. They finished up with a pitiful 55 points against St Kilda -- a side that won just four games last year. Meanwhile, every time the Saints attacked they looked likely to score and ended the game with 26 shots at goal (six attempts didn't score) from 47 entries.

Jordan Lewis was supposed to be the on-field coach but that doesn't mean he can have no impact with the Sherrin. The four-time premiership star for Hawthorn had just 13 touches and failed to lay a tackle. Tom McDonald was deplorable once again, Jayden Hunt is so hot and cold it isn't funny and Christian Petracca has to have the worst game awareness of any player in the league.

Better luck next year, Dees.

Tom Hawkins: He's no stranger to Match Review Officer Michael Christian, but Geelong key forward Tom Hawkins is likely to come under MRO scrutiny this week for an off-the-ball hit on Hawthorn antagonist James Sicily.

During the Cats' 23-point win over Hawthorn on Monday, and with the ball 30 metres away in the Cats' forward line in the third term, Hawkins cocked his elbow and drove it into Sicily's lower back, flooring the backman and drawing some choice words from Hawks fans behind the goals.

With a poor record -- and the AFL claiming it wants to stamp out silly, off the ball hits -- Hawkins could be in danger of missing a week or two of footy, something the Cats can ill-afford at this stage of the season.

In the next two weeks, Geelong host reigning premiers West Coast at GMHBA Stadium and a resurgent Essendon at the MCG. Better hope for a fine, Tommy!