Melbourne won a thriller over Port Adelaide at Renmark Oval by two points with St Kilda overrunning Sydney at Etihad Stadium by 23 points and Collingwood rounding out the weekend's action with 20-point win over West Coast at Patersons Stadium.
The Demons and Power both came out of their game in Renmark unscathed unlike the other four sides with the Saints worrying about Rhys Stanley (knee), the Swans Lewis Roberts-Thomson (calf), the Magpies Ben Reid (knee) and Eagles Andrew Embley (hamstring) and Matt Rosa (hamstring).
Melbourne held off a late surge from Port Adelaide to win 0.12.6 (78) to 1.10.7 (76) largely on the back of five goals from James Sellar.
As well as Sellar's five goals from 15 possessions and seven marks, James Magner picked up 24 possessions for the Demons with Nevill Jetta having 20 disposals, Joel MacDonald 19 and Troy Davis 16. Aaron Davey also kicked three goals and Dean Kent two.
Last year's Sandover Medallist in the WAFL with Claremont Kane Mitchell was a standout performer for Port Adelaide finishing with 26 possessions and seven marks. Hamish Hartlett had 23 touches to go with two goals and a nine-point super goal.
Oliver Wines picked up 21 touches, Mitchell's Claremont premiership teammate Lewis Stevenson 20, Sam Colquhoun 19 and Paul Stewart 18. Daniel Stewart also kicked two goals while Jarrad Redden was good in the ruck with 16 possessions and 16 hit outs.
St Kilda kicked five goals to one in the last quarter at Etihad Stadium to beat reigning premier Sydney 0.13.12 (90) to 1.8.10 (67).
However, the Saints win was dampened after key position player Stanley hyper-extended his knee in the third quarter. Coach Scott Watters is hopeful it's not too serious though.
"It looked bad initially but it doesn’t look quite as bad now," Watters said.
"Even from his reaction now, he seems pretty positive. The doctors are pretty bullish on where it sits, but we'll get a scan."
St Kilda's forward-line look dangerous even with the absence of Nick Riewoldt, Stephen Milne and Justin Koschitzke with Ahmed Saad, Trent Dennis-Lane and Sam Dunnell all kicking two goals apiece, and Beau Maister (formerly Wilkes) a good target with 12 touches, seven marks and 1.2.
Further afield, Leigh Montagna finished with 28 possessions, 10 marks and a goal. Clint Jones gathered 22 disposals, David Armitage 20, Farren Ray 18, Sam Gilbert 18 and Nathan Wright 17.
Sydney was missing a host of premiership stars so the concerns weren’t too severe for coach John Longmire aside from a slight calf injury to Roberts-Thomson.
Andrejs Everitt and Jake Lloyd kicked two goals each with Daniel Hannebery racking up 30 possessions, evergreen veteran Jude Bolton 27, Tony Armstrong 24, Josh Kennedy 23, Lewis Jetta 21 and Luke Parker 20.
Collingwood was impressive beating West Coast 3.10.9 (96) to 1.10.7 (76) at Subiaco's Patersons Stadium despite the absence of up to 12 members of what could be considered its best 22.
However, the 'Pies face a nervous wait to find out the severity of a knee injury to star defender Reid. Coach Nathan Buckley is confident it won't keep him out of Round 1 of the season proper though.
"We weren’t going to take any risks with him tonight so we just put him on ice," Buckley said.
"But he should right. All reports are that he's going to be fine at this stage."
West Coast coach John Worsfold also has his concerns after hamstring injuries to Embley and Rosa, and with defender Mitch Brown tweaking an ankle. He remains hopeful that none of the three are anything to worry about that.
It was a good win for Collingwood as it remained unbeaten this NAB Cup.
Dane Swan, Paul Seedsman and Travis Cloke all booted nine-point super goals with Steel Sidebottom, Caolan Mooney and Jamie Elliott all adding two regular goals each.
Scott Pendlebury racked up 28 possessions, Heath Shaw 26, Swan 23, Sidebottom 20, Marty Clarke 18 and Seedsman 18.
Making Collingwood's win all the more impressive was the fact that it was without Dale Thomas, Dayne Beams, Luke Ball, Ben Johnson, Brent Macaffer, Alan Didak, Darren Jolly, Nathan Brown, Clinton Young, Alex Fasolo and Lachlan Keeffe.
All-Australian forward Mark LeCras kicked four goals for West Coast after missing all of last season after undergoing a knee reconstruction.
Scott Selwood gathered 28 disposals but kicked four behinds with Andrew Gaff racking up 28 touches, Matt Priddis 25, Luke Shuey 25, and Chris Masten 25. Dean Cox had 15 disposals and 26 hit outs in the ruck.