In a week that little happened in terms of The Power Rankings, Fremantle was the only team to move up a spot, shifting from 4th to 3rd. The Dockers are up there with the Cats, Hawks, and Swans in terms of The Power Teams in the AFL comp. Indeed, you could say the rankings system ‘underrates’ Freo because it expresses a team’s worth in terms of net margin. This might be thought to disadvantage teams like the Dockers that choke the life out of an opposition, rather than teams like the Hawks which score (and concede) more freely.
FALLING DOWN
With the Dockers being the only team to move up a spot this means the Swans were the only team to move down a spot. But to highlight them here seems a bit unfair to the Swans, who came up against the #1 ranked team on its home turf. So let’s highlight GWS instead, who lost the most ranking points this week, and now look certain to spend the entire 2013 season ranked stone motherless last.
ALSO OF NOTE
Apart from Richmond intruding in Round 14, Geelong, Hawthorn, Fremantle, and Sydney have been the top four teams in the rankings since Round 4, and they will now finish the home and away season in the top four spots. This is in contrast to the actual AFL ladder, which somehow thought Essendon was one of the top four teams up until a few weeks ago, and even thought Port Adelaide belonged there early in the season. The lesson, as always: put your trust in the rankings and you won’t be led astray. And just ignore the fact that it still had West Coast at #6 eight weeks ago.
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