It's not a big week in football without the big question mark.

Already in 2011 it has variously hovered over Richmond, North Melbourne and Melbourne, but those in the game who love to pose the big questions will be besides themselves with excitement because there are three teams who will face an uncomfortable week in the public glare.

The most obvious is Brisbane, which spent the week disparaging the upstart Gold Coast Suns, then couldn't back it up.

We at BPL had the Lions pegged as wooden spooners this year and we could be right. They're not particularly well coached (Daniel Merrett to the forward line for the first half was a puzzling choice) and they go to sleep at puzzling times. Case in point was Saturday night, when having drawn level in the final term, the Lions then yielded the Suns (who were dead on their feet) two late goals to seal the win.

Once again, the Dreamteam approach to recruiting that Michael Voss took to recruiting in the pre-season of 2010 could come back to bite him. The Lions have a couple of kids coming through, but not enough to think there will be a sharp reversal in Brisbane's fortunes anytime soon.

The Western Bulldogs are also a concern. At the start of last season they were premiership favourites. But has their ship sailed? They blew a flying start to the Sydney Swans in Canberra on Saturday and are 2-4 with the resurgent Richmond to come. Rodney Eade is out of contract at the end of the season and you have to ask whether time is starting to run out for Eade in his quest to land a flag at the Whitten Oval and indeed as a coach, to match the four he won as a player at Hawthorn.

To Eade's credit, he is bringing in kids and shaking up the side. He is threatening to axe more of his senior players, in the wake of last week's stunning omission of dual All Australian full-back Brian Lake. But these are interesting times out west and a 2-5 record for a side whose premiership window is still open would be rather stunning.

Adelaide will be facing a difficult week. The Adelaide Advertiser and 5AA will likely be unforgiving in the wake of a 96-point loss to Melbourne at the MCG. It was the Mothers' Day massacre that nobody foresaw and it was a very un-Adelaide like performance because it was fundamentally dishonest.

The bye and a new club finding its feet has done some strange things to the ladder this year. But while we expected the Lions to struggle, the Bulldogs and the Crows were expected to be in contention.

They still might contend because it is a long season, but they'll need to get a wriggle on.