Fremantle's stunning demise from preliminary finalist to potential wooden spooner is almost beyond belief. The Dockers were runners-up in 2013, and have finished each of the past three regular seasons in the top four. Now they're stone motherless last, the competition's only winless team. Damien Hardwick's Richmond have just lost their sixth game in a row. Credit:AFL Media/Getty Images It's been 77 years since a team fell this far from the top four this quickly, all the way back to 1939, when Footscray, after having finished the 1938 home and away season third, lost the first 10 games of the next season. That's some unwanted history. Eade's Gold Coast had an encouraging pre-season and started this year in style with three straight wins. They've since lost four games in a row, their last two by 120 and 73 points respectively. If you'd like some fries to go with that, consider that in the second half of those last two smashings, they've conceded a total of 30 goals and kicked just eight. If that doesn't say the white flag has been waved, what does?

Losing two key defenders in Rory Thompson and the suspended Steven May is hurting big time, as is the continued absence of long-term midfield casualties Jaeger O'Meara and David Swallow. Ross Lyon wants to see another strong performance from his players. Credit:Getty Images But effort has to be a non-negotiable, whatever the personnel. Eade's Suns don't give nearly enough of it. And with GWS, Adelaide, West Coast and Sydney to come over the next month, the coaching veteran is staring down the barrel of a 3-8 scoreline and a lot more pressure yet. Collingwood's rancid start to 2016 is exceeded only by Fremantle's for shock value, given the lofty expectations hardly discouraged by the Pies after an impressive NAB Challenge campaign. Rodney Eade's Gold Coast had an encouraging pre-season and started this year in style with three straight wins. Credit:AFL Media/Getty Images

Buckley's team have now lost 14 of their last 18 matches going back to the midway point of last season, the four victories against teams which were struggling just as much, if not more than the Pies. After inheriting a team which had just finished runner-up, Buckley has led Collingwood to finishes of fourth, eighth, 11th, 12th, the Pies currently 14th. His year-by-year win percentage isn't pleasant reading, heading consistently in the wrong direction – 68 per cent to 61, 50, 45 and this season, 28.5 Hardwick's Richmond have just lost their sixth game in a row, their worst run of outs for nearly five years. With Sydney, Fremantle in Perth, Essendon and North Melbourne to come over the next month, there's every chance the Tigers could be 2-9 at the mid-point of the season. That's worse even than 2014,when they had to win their last nine games just to reach the finals. Speculation around the futures of each of the quartet remains muted, mainly because three of them, Lyon, Buckley and Hardwick, have all been granted recent contract extensions, Lyon's until the end of 2020. Whatever the level of supporter discontent, imagine the humble pie Collingwood and Richmond would be forced to eat by doing an about-face on the latter pair, not to mention money wasted on payouts, within six months of giving them a vote of confidence.

In either case, too, the waters have been muddied by other factors. For the Tigers, it's the quality of their list, and whether Hardwick has in fact done well to get Richmond as high as they've climbed. The harsher view is that the coach can't separate himself from list decisions. That the recruitment of the likes of Chris Yarran, Taylor Hunt and Shaun Hampson over the past three years indicates a club which thought it was good enough for a serious crack at a flag. And that has to include the coach. Injuries are the constant accompaniment to any assessment of Buckley the coach, again this year with the likes of Dane Swan, Jamie Elliott, Taylor Adams, Tom Langdon, Travis Varcoe, Marley Williams all missing from Saturday's line-up. But Collingwood is also a side which started the year with a supposed large band of still youngish players with enough experience under their belts to cope with injury setbacks, more than half the clubs in the AFL with less-seasoned lists. Genuine leadership is in short supply on field for Buckley, but two of his five-man leadership group – Brent Macaffer and Nathan Brown – couldn't win a spot in Saturday's 22, an issue in itself.

And the Pies' picking and choosing their occasions to give maximum effort is perhaps the most damning comment currently on what the coach is extracting from his players. Collingwood have won just nine of 28 quarters played this season. Even in the miserable end to 2015, the Pies still managed to finish the season having won more than half their quarters played. Fremantle, though, has won even fewer quarters. And it's Lyon's situation which is the most fascinating. This writer pondered after two rounds whether the Dockers were headed the way of Lyon's 2011 St Kilda, years of relentless grind under a demanding coach who almost but not quite coaxed his troops to the mountain top having taken a toll with the summit now, realistically, looking unreachable. How do you conclude anything else now after seven straight losses? Yes, the Dockers are currently without Nat Fyfe and Aaron Sandilands. But Saturday night's team which lost to the Giants nonetheless contained 16 of the same players who fronted up in last year's playoff against Hawthorn for a grand final spot. Indicators of effort, to win the ball, both in and outside the contest and to run hard are telling indeed for Fremantle.

Last year, on the differentials, they ranked fourth for possession. Currently, they're 17th. They were first for clearances and second for contested ball in 2015. Those numbers are now eighth and 13th. They were fourth for uncontested possession, now last. Their defence has collapsed under the strain, Freo second for fewest points conceded last season, now 13th. No one disputes the Dockers' strongest era yet is over. What will remain a fascinating question is whether Lyon is more prepared to both play and maintain a faith in youth for a lot longer than he has in the past. Freo have already used 32 players this season. But Darcy Tucker is still the only Docker to debut in 2016, and he was dropped last week after two games, along with another rookie in Brady Grey, who also only got a two-game run. Surely now, Lyon has little choice but to play the kids, and play them week in, week out. He has until 2020 to prepare another assault. How he goes about it might define his coaching legacy just as much as those repeated high finishes and narrow grand final losses have.