AFL Power Rankings - Round 23

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 51.6 (Last week 49.1)
2 (2) Geelong 36.3 (40.9)
3 (3) Hawthorn 33.8 (33.6)
4 (4) Carlton 27.7 (27.6)
5 (6) St. Kilda 18.6 (14.2)
6 (5) West Coast 18.5 (19.8)
7 (8) Sydney 7.8 (3.0)
8 (7) North Melbourne 3.0 (8.2)
9 (10) Western Bulldogs -5.9 (-5.4)
10 (9) Essendon -6.1 (-1.8)
11 (11) Brisbane -15.4 (-16.7)
12 (14) Richmond -17.2 (-19.5)
13 (13) Fremantle -17.6 (-17.6)
14 (12) Adelaide -19.5 (-17.2)
15 (15) Melbourne -27.3 (-25.7)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -45.6 (-49.3)
17 (17) Gold Coast -50.0 (-51.1)

AFL Power Rankings - Round 22

The biggest riser this week is actually a team that lost on the weekend - Brisbane's relatively narrow away loss to Collingwood takes them up three spots to 11th. After weeks of swapping places with Carlton, Hawthorn settled into 3rd with their win over the Blues.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 49.1 (Last week 54.7)
2 (2) Geelong 40.9 (41.7)
3 (3) Hawthorn 33.6 (33.1)
4 (4) Carlton 27.6 (27.6)
5 (5) West Coast 19.8 (16.5)
6 (6) St. Kilda 14.2 (15.7)
7 (7) North Melbourne 8.2 (2.2)
8 (8) Sydney 3.0 (1.3)
9 (9) Essendon -1.8 (0.2)
10 (10) Western Bulldogs -5.4 (-8.8)
11 (14) Brisbane -16.7 (-23.0)
12 (12) Adelaide -17.2 (-19.8)
13 (11) Fremantle -17.6 (-10.6)
14 (13) Richmond -19.5 (-19.8)
15 (15) Melbourne -25.7 (-25.1)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -49.3 (-45.6)
17 (17) Gold Coast -51.1 (-50.0)

The Finger Points Outwards - No. 36

The AFL "supercoach" doesn't exist - I completely agree (as Leigh Matthews did, and he should know).

AFL Power Rankings - Round 21

Hawks get a boost from their 165-point win over Port, again switching places with Carlton; perhaps next week's square-off between the teams will determine who is the best team outside "the Big Two". Port meanwhile, are giving the Suns their first serious competition for many weeks as the lowest ranked team.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 54.7 (Last week 56.3)
2 (2) Geelong 41.7 (43.6)
3 (4) Hawthorn 33.1 (22.8)
4 (3) Carlton 27.6 (25.2)
5 (5) West Coast 16.5 (13.5)
6 (6) St. Kilda 15.7 (13.4)
7 (8) North Melbourne 2.2 (1.6)
8 (7) Sydney 1.3 (6.0)
9 (9) Essendon 0.2 (-3.9)
10 (10) Western Bulldogs -8.8 (-5.4)
11 (11) Fremantle -10.6 (-11.0)
12 (12) Adelaide -19.8 (-22.8)
13 (15) Richmond -19.8 (-26.8)
14 (14) Brisbane -23.0 (-26.7)
15 (13) Melbourne -25.1 (-23.8)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -45.6 (-38.6)
17 (17) Gold Coast -50.0 (-48.0)

AFL Power Rankings - Round 20

A bit of shuffling around the edges this week, but there's huge gaps opening up between the top few and the bottom few. Collingwood are now considered at least a 13-goal better team than everyone from Adelaide on down, and Geelong are considered a least an 11-goal better team than all of that group. Even Carlton and Hawthorn would be expected to win by at least 8 goals against the teams in that group on neutral turf.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 56.3 (Last week 50.5)
2 (2) Geelong 43.6 (38.7)
3 (4) Carlton 25.2 (22.8)
4 (3) Hawthorn 22.8 (25.2)
5 (6) West Coast 13.5 (12.1)
6 (5) St. Kilda 13.4 (12.4)
7 (7) Sydney 6.0 (7.0)
8 (8) North Melbourne 1.6 (0.8)
9 (9) Essendon -3.9 (-5.5)
10 (10) Western Bulldogs -5.4 (-5.8)
11 (11) Fremantle -11.0 (-10.3)
12 (13) Adelaide -22.8 (-23.5)
13 (12) Melbourne -23.8 (-20.7)
14 (15) Brisbane -26.7 (-26.1)
15 (14) Richmond -26.8 (-25.6)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -38.6 (-32.6)
17 (17) Gold Coast -48.0 (-44.0)

The Best Basketball Player In Each Position

In a series over at ESPN.com over the past week, five "basketball nerds" have been asked each day who is the best player currently playing at each position, and who is the best player at that position of all time. These were the players who received the most votes at each position.

Current players

Point Guard: Chris Paul
Shooting Guard: Dwyane Wade
Small Forward: LeBron James
Power Forward: Dirk Nowitzki
Center: Dwight Howard

All-time players

Point Guard: Magic Johnson
Shooting Guard: Michael Jordan
Small Forward: Larry Bird
Power Forward: Tim Duncan
Center: Bill Russell

In terms of current players, I would absolutely choose Paul, Wade (yes, over Kobe), James and Howard (isn't it weird how all their surnames are first names?). All of these players are productive on multiple levels and are more or less at the peaks of their careers. I wonder though if Kevin Love would be a better choice than Dirk Nowitzki. Yes, Nowitzki achieved amazing things this year by being the leading offensive option on the team that won the championship, and that prevented James and Wade from winning a championship in the process. But let's compare Love's and Nowitzki's statistics:

Love: field goal %: .470; 3-point field goal %: .417; free-throw %: .850; rebounds per game: 15.2; assists per game: 2.5; points per game: 20.2.

Nowitzki: field goal %: .517; 3-point field goal %: .393; free-throw %: .892; rebounds per game: 7.0; assists per game: 2.6; points per game: 23.0.

Love has a huge rebounding advantage, and Nowitzki holds slight advantages in most of the other categories. I guess in the end though it's hard to make a case against the guy who won the ring.

In terms of the all-time choices, Magic, Michael and Larry seem to me the obvious picks. The center spot seems to me the toughest to pick with Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O'Neal all having strong claims. In this case, it's hard to argue against the guy who won 11 rings - i.e. Russell (even if I think rings are overvalued). Russell certainly didn't score as much as the others, but his rebounding and reportedly his defence were close to unparalleled. You could argue about this for more space than I will here, but for now I have no problem with Russell being the pick.

For me, the power forward battle is between Duncan, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and Kevin Garnett. Their stats were all fairly similar, though Malone was the highest volume scorer, while Barkley was a hugely efficient scorer (FG%: .541) and the most effective rebounder. But in the end Duncan has had a lot of success, so he probably deserves the spot.

So, in the end, I guess I'm agreeing with the consensus. With Duncan's success though, the debate about the all-time best at each position has become fairly settled. An all-time Top 10 though, I think, would be another story.