As some of the powerhouse teams of 2011 continue to struggle and as new teams emerge, the various ratings systems that we've been considering have each arrived at their own conclusions about who's best and who's worst (well, actually, there's broad consensus about who's worst, but you get the idea).

Firstly, a look at MARS, which steadfastly rates the Cats as team supreme, the Blues at two, the Hawks now at three, and the Eagles at four.

In total, eight teams changed positions on the basis of MARS Ratings this week, four rising and swapping places with four falling.

Since Round 1, eight teams have gained MARS Ratings Points (RPs) and ten have shed them. The Swans, Eagles, Dons, Saints and Blues have gained most, each accumulating more than 5 RPs, while the Dees, Suns, Lions and Pies have lost most, each surrendering more them 5 RPs.

The interquartile Ratings gap, the difference between the Rating of the team ranked 4th and the team ranked 15th, is currently at a season-high 50.6 points, up over 4 RPs since last week and over 16 RPs since the end of Round 1.

In contrast, the gap in the Ratings between the teams ranked 4th and 8th is just 16.4 RPs, down over 2 RPs in the last two weeks. 

The picture suggested by these two observations - of a widening form gap between the strong sides and the weak, and a narrowing gap between the sides vying for spots in the Finals and in the top 4 - seems broadly consistent with how the season seems to be unfolding.

However, as I alluded to in the opening paragraph, different rating systems currently have different views about the merits of specific teams.

MARS, for example, continues to rank the Cats significantly higher than do the Massey or Colley Rating Systems. In fact, it ranks them 1st. The Colley System, meantime, ranks the Crows and, to a lesser extent, the Dons, Freo and West Coast more highly than do the other Rating Systems, and ranks the Hawks lower. And finally, Massey, ranks the Roos and Port more highly and the Pies lower than do the MARS and Colley Systems.

I reckon it'll be another few weeks before these three Systems begin to more fully converge.