2013 : MARS, Massey, Colley and ODM Ratings After Round 7

More than half of the teams changed positions on the MARS Ratings ladder this week, including all but two of the teams in the top 10.

Fremantle climbed most, leaping 3 spots after their 27-point victory over the Pies, who were one of three teams (Essendon and Carlton being the other two) to fall by 2 spots this week. Adelaide was the only other team to move on the MARS Ratings ladder by more than a single spot, climbing 2 places to 7th after feasting on the ever-dwindling RP supply of the Giants.

GWS have now lost 17.3 RPs over the course of the season, but still have some distance to travel before they eclipse the all-time low MAFL Rating of 913.6 attained by Fitzroy in their swansong season of 1996. Melbourne have shed even more RPs, dropping 23.7 of them since the season began, while Brisbane (14.9 RPs), and the Dogs (12.0 RPs) have been the other biggest losers.

Teams that have gained most across the season to date have been Essendon (15.9 RPs), Hawthorn (11.6 RPs), Port Adelaide (10.6 RPs), and Geelong (10.3 RPs).

Looking, instead, just at the last 5 rounds we see the Dons, the Hawks and the Cats again amongst the major gainers. They're joined by the Blues, the Eagles and the Roos to make up the half-dozen teams that have gained 6.8 RPs or more over these 5 rounds.

Six more teams have gained RPs across this same period, in amounts ranging from about 1 to 3 RPs, making 12 teams in all that have been net gainers.

So, two-thirds of the teams in the competition have accumulated RPs over the last 5 rounds. The zero-sum nature of MARS Ratings means that these gains must have been contributed by the other one-third of the teams.

Just one-half of these six donors - the Dogs, the Giants and the Dees - have provided almost three-quarters of those RP gains, with the Lions, Pies and Saints contributing the remaining one-quarter.

In terms of Ranking positions, the teams to have suffered most from the loss of RPs over this 5 round period have been the Pies, who've fallen 6 places, and the Saints, who've slipped 4 places.

The teams to have benefited most from their RP acquisitions over this time have been Carlton, Essendon and the Roos, who've each climbed 3 spots. West Coast are the only other team to have risen by more than a single spot since the end of Round 2. They've climbed 2 places into 5th.

Broadening our attention to take in the other MAFL Ratings Systems, we still find widespread agreement amongst them, especially if we exclude MARS, which ranks the Pies and Dons more lowly, and the Crows, Swans and Eagles more highly than do the other Systems.

Next, deconstructing the ODM System's team rankings into offensive and defensive rankings, we see that ODM rates the Crows', Dockers', Powers' and Saints' offences significantly more highly than their respective defences, and the Pies', Cats', Giants', Roos', Tigers' and Eagles' defences significantly more highly than their respective offences.

The differences in the offensive and defensive rankings of Fremantle and West Coast in particular are especially large. Support for this assessment can be found in the competition ladder itself, which reveals that Fremantle has scored fewer points than any other team in the top 12 positions on the competition ladder, but has also conceded fewer points than any other team in the entire competition except Essendon. Also, West Coast ranks 5th in the competition in terms of points scored.

Lastly, here's the chart of team MARS Ratings for the entire season to date.