RIGHT at the moment, Jack Darling is the best forward in the competition and he once again features in my round eight Team of the Week, brought to you by AccorHotels.

Lance Franklin is sidelined with a bruised heel so that thins out the candidates but Darling is on fire. The Eagle is ranked No.1 in the competition for total contested marks, No.2 for total score involvements and No.3 for total goals.

I had to reward West Coast for the win of the round. It's been understated how impressive that victory was. To pull off that win without Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey and Jeremy McGovern was outstanding, so I selected a couple of Darling's teammates in Tom Barrass and Elliot Yeo as well.

My front six is loaded with goalkickers – they booted 31 goals among them at the weekend.

A couple from the Showdown were unlucky to miss out. Paddy Ryder was exceptional in the ruck but Matthew Kreuzer just pipped him, while Adelaide wingman Rory Atkins wasn't far away.

BLUES BROTHERS WORTH WATCHING: Nine things we learned from round eight

Yeo has become a jet and against the Giants, he collected 28 disposals, 17 contested possessions and eight tackles. Port Adelaide kept Adelaide's talls quiet and Tom Jonas was a big reason – he bounced back after lowering his colours to Josh Kennedy in round seven. Geelong has been brilliant at restricting opponents and Tom Stewart is a big reason for that. There's been a lot of talk about James Sicily but if you focus on his on-field form, the Hawk is in contention for an All Australian spot. The marking of Barrass stood out and Matthew Suckling, who can be wasteful, was in good form against Brisbane.

Once again, Dayne Zorko had to deal with a tag (this time from Mitch Honeychurch) but there were no problems this time, with 24 disposals and four goals. Nat Fyfe isn't far off his Brownlow Medal form from 2015 and Jackson Macrae was huge for the Western Bulldogs. Carlton ruckman Matthew Kreuzer had a massive influence as the Blues posted their first win of the year, Ben Cunnington was great in the contest and Trent Cotchin starred once again.

WATCH: Cotchin's crucial last-quarter goal

I don't care whether Marcus Bontempelli plays up forward or in the midfield. He's a gun everywhere. Darling seems to have matured as a player. Port got back into the Showdown on the back of Robbie Gray, whose third quarter was tremendous. In career-best form is Jack Gunston, who was played out of position when he went to defence last year. There isn't a better contested mark in the AFL than Tom McDonald. The player of the round was Ben Ronke. He won't be a one-hit wonder – I think he'll be a 200-gamer.

WATCH: Ronke's sixth goal

A couple of terrific negating jobs were done over the weekend. Ed Curnow kept Zach Merrett quiet and won plenty of it himself and Ben Jacobs did what was supposedly impossible in stopping Dustin Martin. Luke Parker's best footy is as good as any midfielder's and Josh Caddy was one of the Tigers' best in their narrow victory.