An early season dilemma has emerged for all self-respecting AFL tipsters. A couple of teams we have learned to treat with extreme caution, that we don't particularly like associating ourselves with, are suddenly making nuisances of themselves. These are the poor relations. Quite unexpectedly they've turned up on the doorstep dressed to kill and suggesting it would be in our interests to let them in. Are we to respond to the increasing volume of knocking at the door?

They are Fremantle and Port Adelaide. The Dockers and the Wharfies. These are the two teams that, since their entry to the AFL, have lived in the shadow of their suave, big brothers. Adelaide and West Coast were kings of their local playgrounds before their respective siblings were born and the little brothers have never quite been able to mark out their territory. The Power did manage to win a flag a few years ago but have since battled to earn a quid. The Dockers are now paying their way off the ground, but have continued to be threadbare in terms of performance on the park.

Well, perhaps things are about to change. Suddenly, fleetingly at least, the kid brothers are flying while the big boys are being beaten up. For only the second time in their inglorious history, the Dockers have won their first two games of a season. They have soundly dispatched a pair of last year's finalists. The newspaper states Fremantle's percentage at 176.3 and it's not a misprint.

The Power's two victims to date weren't among the top half in 2009, but both had been expected to improve this year. Port's win last Saturday over West Coast, who were rebounding from a first-up loss and playing their first home-game of the season, was full of merit. Also satisfying for Mark Williams' team is the relativity of its performance to that of its silver-tailed, cross-town rival. The Adelaide Crows have made an extraordinarily poor start to the season and, against all expectations, the Power may carry the South Australian banner in 2010.

These are early days of course, but the beleaguered coaches of Fremantle and Port Adelaide are suddenly breathing easier. Mark Harvey has been kicking into the wind since 2008 when, in his first full-season at the helm, the Dockers began with one win from eleven games. After being the proverbial rabbit in the headlights in some of his early media appearances, Harvey is now sounding like a coach whose belief is genuine.

Conveying belief has never been a problem for Mark Williams, but over the last two years the wolves had been gathering at Alberton. Not that Williams is entirely unfamiliar with the experience. This is, after all, the man who provided the signature sights and sounds of the 2004 premiership triumph with his extraordinary self-strangulation gesture followed by the resonating outburst: "Alan Scott - you were wrong!"

This week, both Williams and Harvey could add significantly to their new-found cache. The Power meet Brisbane, also unbeaten, at AAMI stadium where they thumped the Lions by eight goals last year. And the Dockers host Geelong in a meeting that will cause many tipsters to ponder for an abnormally long time before choosing which box to tick.

If the pair are still knocking at the door come Sunday night, it might be time to accept that the one-time poor relations have morphed into something else. Glamour teams perhaps.