Last week was a week that saw the Pies and the Cats put some more distance between themselves and the rest as their MARS Ratings rose by a few points while the Ratings of the teams directly below them either stagnated, due to byes, or fell because of performances that were below expectations.

Here's the current table:

We now have an 11 Ratings Point gap between 1st and 2nd, a 13 Ratings Point gap between 2nd and 3rd, and a 6 Ratings Point gap between 3rd and 4th.

At the foot of the ladder we have Port Adelaide attempting a climb, while the Gold Coast and Richmond seem destined to become the lowest MARS-ranked team of all time. Also notable is the fact that there's now a 10 Ratings point gap between 11th and 12th, underscoring the emerging two-speed nature of the competition that I highlighted last week.