Zak Butters rattles Hawthorn, as Brisbane, Geelong and Collingwood refuse to go quietly in AFL's Gather Round

Hawthorn and Adelaide have been lauded as potential premiership contenders this season, but both were taught valuable lessons by prideful opponents who have been battle-hardened over the past few years.

Here's what we learnt from Gather Round as Brisbane, Geelong and Collingwood, the AFL's last three premiers, along with Port Adelaide, a perennial preliminary final side, showed they won't go down without a fight.

Hipwood sparks insane Lions comeback

One of the biggest lessons to come out of the first month of the season is Brisbane's ability to be unfazed when playing from behind.

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As they've done for most of the year so far, the reigning premiers sleepwalked their way through the first two quarters at Norwood and found themselves trailing the Bulldogs by 38 points early in the third term. Surely they wouldn't wriggle their way out of this jam, right?

Eric Hipwood, suddenly thrust back into top billing in Brisbane's forward line after Joe Daniher's shock retirement, had managed just one kick at the half after an utterly forgettable two quarters of football for him on a personal note.

Five minutes into the second half, Hipwood flung himself at a contest, intercepting a Bulldogs kick-in and was able to finish off his work with a goal just seconds later and just like that, he was fully activated.

Hipwood was miscast as the Lions' next great forward hope when he burst onto the scene with 30 goals in 2017 as a 20-year-old, but he hasn't quite kicked on beyond second or third-banana status in the years since, kicking no higher than 41 goals in a single season.

His intercept and goal was the first of nine straight for the Lions. Hipwood played all the signature hits in the second half - clunking towering marks, kicking goals on the run as well as picking up ground balls with the agility of a player significantly shorter than him en-route to finishing with five goals and a team-high 10 score involvements.

With Hipwood up and firing as the focal point, the Lions' bevy of damaging smalls went to work. Zac Bailey played one of his best games of the season, Callum Ah Chee continued to do Callum Ah Chee things and fellow big Logan Morris looked much more comfortable as well.

The Lions need more of good Hipwood if they're to fully cover the loss of Daniher this season, and after a quiet first few games, Chris Fagan will be glad to see his big forward up and running.

Geelong teaches Adelaide a lesson in killer instinct

Adelaide has been one of the stories through the first month and Gather Round was set up as a coronation of sorts for the Crows.

Arguably the league's most aesthetically pleasing team opened up the round in prime time on Thursday night up against a woefully undermanned Geelong side which made yet another late change.

As Adelaide welcomed the AFL to its party, Geelong ransacked the house Photo shows Jeremy Cameron celebrates a Geelong goal as an Adelaide player sits near him With the whole AFL watching, Adelaide had everything set up for its perfect Gather Round welcome, only for Geelong to stroll in, crash the party and ransack the house on the way out, writes Dean Bilton.

Things went to script during the first quarter and a half for the Crows. They looked a touch too slick and too powerful for the Cats and raced out to a five-goal lead before people on the hill at the Adelaide Oval had fully settled into their spots.

The thing about playing against battle-tested teams like Geelong is you've got to put them away when you've got them down on the mat, and the Crows, as dominant as they were in the first half, couldn't quite kill off the contest.

Adelaide led all the metrics by a large margin at the half but only held a 12-point lead. As Darcy Fogarty rained goals for the Crows at one end, Patrick Dangerfield ominously circled the water at the other end of the ground like a proper apex predator.

Dangerfield is no stranger to putting on the Superman cape and dragging his team along, and having kept his team in the contest through three quarters, he found a partner in crime in the fourth in the form of Jeremy Cameron.

Patrick Dangerfield kept the Cats within striking distance for three quarters before eventually killing off the Crows in the fourth. (Getty Images: Mark Brake)

If there is any weakness in this Adelaide side, it is its backline, and the wily old duo of Dangerfield and Cameron ran rings around them in the fourth quarter. The pair wound up combining for eight goals, five of them coming in the final term as Geelong sealed one of the great home and away wins of the Chris Scott era.

The Crows will be fine. This lesson will teach them to not play with their food and to just put teams away. There will be a time when they are the veteran team who kills off a younger rival who can't quite finish off the job. But on this night, it was a timely reminder of why the Cats have been so damn good for so damn long.

Butters goes sicko mode and rattles the Hawks

Not a soul in the AFL gave Port Adelaide a chance coming into Sunday night's Gather Round finale against Hawthorn.

All the pre-game talk was surrounding Ken Hinkley, Jack Ginnivan, James Sicily and the fact that the Hawks, suddenly premiership favourites, would exact revenge on the downtrodden Port coach.

People peddling those narratives forgot two things. One, these Port players LOVE Hinkley, maybe more than their own relatives and two, Zak Butters is as psychotic a competitor as we have in the competition.

It is no coincidence that Port's slow start to the season came with Butters sidelined. Connor Rozee might be the captain, Jason Horne-Francis might leap off the screen the most, but Butters is undoubtedly Port's tone-setter.

Zak Butters was pumped after helping Port Adelaide end bitter rival Hawthorn's perfect start to the season. (Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)

It is hard to believe Butters stands at just 181cm because he plays with the attitude and the swagger of someone 15cm taller, and it was all on show against the Hawks. When he's around, Port plays with a different level of verve and those around him puff out their chest a little more and play a little meaner.

Butters was in the middle of everything good as Port rattled off 12 first-half goals and led by 71 points at one stage in the second quarter.

He was at the coalface whisking the ball away from the Hawks midfielders and setting up goals with deft kicks inside 50, all while talking an incredible amount of trash to a Hawks team that could not believe an opponent had the audacity to clap back for once.

At one stage in the first half, as Port rammed on goal after goal, every cut scene shot after a goal featured Butters getting in the face of Nick Watson, who along with Ginnivan was conspicuously quiet on the night.

A handy by-product of Butters doing Butters things was Rozee and Horne-Francis both being unlocked. Rozee slotted into the Dan Houston role at halfback with aplomb, while Horne-Francis was a monster in the final quarter when Hawthorn charged home late.

It is easy to mock Port for not having won a premiership under Hinkley, but this is a proud football club with an extremely talented list. Do not write the obituary just yet, particularly with a player like Butters at the peak of his powers.

The old Magpies continue ticking along

Speaking of premature obituaries, remember when everyone killed off Collingwood after Opening Round?

Don't look now, but the Pies have quietly ticked along to 4-1 after another convincing win, this time against the Swans.

Older, wiser, better: Sidebottom's Pies are primed for another flag tilt Photo shows Steele Sidebottom gets a kick away along the boundary line It is a compliment to say Steele Sidebottom plays like a 34-year-old, and his battle-hardened know-how proved influential in Collingwood's ominous victory over Sydney, writes Dean Bilton.

It is easy to write off this win as one coming against an under-strength opponent, but that would mean ignoring the fact that Collingwood also had Dan Houston and Jordan De Goey among others sidelined.

Collingwood's list has an average age of 28.5. It is by far the oldest list in the competition, with Brisbane, GWS and Carlton all tied for second with an average age of 26.4.

As a result, a lot of the analysis surrounding the Pies has been centred around them being too old, too slow and too washed. The problem with take is one of the oldest players on the team, Steele Sidebottom, is also one of the greatest Swiss Army Knives in league history and the oldest, Scott Pendlebury, has a game that refuses to age.

Sidebottom first appeared on our screens as a 17-year-old kicking 10 goals in the 2008 TAC Cup grand final. He was drafted by the Pies a year later and was instantly impactful, kicking 24 goals in the 2010 premiership team. In the 15 years that have followed that premiership, Sidebottom morphed into a genuine A-grade midfielder, a winger, a halfback, and a tagger at different stages.

Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom continue to be vital cogs in a Collingwood side with all the ingredients to win another premiership. (Getty Images: Mark Brake)

Whatever the Pies need, Sidebottom is usually able to deliver. He was at it again against the Swans, winding back the clock with a 28-disposal game that also featured a whopping 13 score involvements.

Alongside him, Pendlebury, he of 408 career games, floated around picking up 26 effortless disposals and six clearances.

Writing off the Magpies as a contender that is too old also completely ignores the fact that their best player, Nick Daicos, is perhaps the best in the competition, and is also still just 22 years old.

The AFL world continues to try and retire this duo and kill off Magpies as a result, but there appears no sign suggesting these Pies will go quietly into the night.

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