AFL Power Rankings - Round 19

Not a lot of movement in ranking positions this week, despite some huge results. Geelong halve the gap from Collingwood with their mammoth 186-point win over Melbourne. The Demons remain in 12th, but are now a lot closer in ranking points to the bottom group. The Hawks move into third with their big win in the west.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 50.5 (Last week 48.8)
2 (2) Geelong 38.7 (26.6)
3 (4) Hawthorn 25.2 (23.2)
4 (3) Carlton 22.8 (23.3)
5 (5) St. Kilda 12.4 (13.6)
6 (6) West Coast 12.1 (11.2)
7 (7) Sydney 7.0 (6.8)
8 (8) North Melbourne 0.8 (0.4)
9 (9) Essendon -5.5 (-3.6)
10 (10) Western Bulldogs -5.8 (-5.2)
11 (11) Fremantle -10.3 (-7.6)
12 (12) Melbourne -20.7 (-9.0)
13 (14) Adelaide -23.5 (-25.7)
14 (13) Richmond -25.6 (-24.5)
15 (15) Brisbane -26.1 (-26.2)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -32.6 (-30.0)
17 (17) Gold Coast -44.0 (-46.2)

AFL Power Rankings - Rounds 17 and 18

I was away last week, so this week we have two rounds worth of updates. St. Kilda have moved up to fifth, and Hawthorn and Carlton are closing the gap on Geelong.

Round 17

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 50.6 (Last week 51.6)
2 (2) Geelong 25.8 (26.8)
3 (3) Hawthorn 19.9 (19.9)
4 (4) Carlton 19.6 (18.5)
5 (5) West Coast 12.6 (12.7)
6 (7) St. Kilda 8.4 (7.6)
7 (6) Sydney 5.4 (8.9)
8 (8) Essendon 0.7 (-0.8)
9 (10) North Melbourne -0.5 (-3.1)
10 (9) Western Bulldogs -3.8 (-1.9)
11 (11) Melbourne -6.5 (-5.3)
12 (12) Fremantle -8.3 (-12.7)
13 (13) Adelaide -19.4 (-18.6)
14 (14) Richmond -23.5 (-20.6)
15 (15) Brisbane -25.1 (-26.7)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -30.5 (-32.2)
17 (17) Gold Coast -48.2 (-52.0)

Round 18

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 48.8 (Last week 50.6)
2 (2) Geelong 26.6 (25.8)
3 (4) Carlton 23.3 (19.6)
4 (3) Hawthorn 23.2 (19.9)
5 (6) St. Kilda 13.6 (8.4)
6 (5) West Coast 11.2 (12.6)
7 (7) Sydney 6.8 (5.4)
8 (9) North Melbourne 0.4 (-0.5)
9 (8) Essendon -3.6 (0.7)
10 (10) Western Bulldogs -5.2 (-3.8)
11 (12) Fremantle -7.6 (-8.3)
12 (11) Melbourne -9.0 (-6.5)
13 (14) Richmond -24.5 (-23.5)
14 (13) Adelaide -25.7 (-19.4)
15 (15) Brisbane -26.2 (-25.1)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -30.0 (-30.5)
17 (17) Gold Coast -46.2 (-48.2)

AFL Power Rankings - Round 16

A huge gap has now opened up between Collingwood and everyone else - only Geelong would now be expected to get within five goals (and Gold Coast would be expected to lose by 19 goals in Melbourne).

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 51.6 (Last week 44.7)
2 (2) Geelong 26.8 (28.4)
3 (4) Hawthorn 19.9 (20.1)
4 (3) Carlton 18.5 (22.3)
5 (5) West Coast 12.7 (10.9)
6 (6) Sydney 8.9 (6.8)
7 (7) St. Kilda 7.6 (5.3)
8 (9) Essendon -0.8 (-2.2)
9 (11) Western Bulldogs -1.9 (-7.6)
10 (8) North Melbourne -3.1 (2.2)
11 (10) Melbourne -5.3 (-5.4)
12 (12) Fremantle -12.7 (-12.2)
13 (13) Adelaide -18.6 (-18.9)
14 (14) Richmond -20.6 (-19.0)
15 (15) Brisbane -26.7 (-28.2)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -32.2 (-28.9)
17 (17) Gold Coast -52.0 (-48.9)

My 10 Favourite Beers To Date

I'm sure this list will change dramatically within a year's time, but here are my current fave brews:

1. Effen



2. Rogue Dead Guy Ale



3. Hoegaarden



4. Coldstream Pilsner



5. Little Creatures Pale Ale



6. Traquair Jacobite Ale



7. Mountain Goat Rare Breed IPA



8. Chimay Red



9. Coopers Vintage



10. Tokyo (Brewdog)

AFL Power Rankings - Round 15

This week, Carlton moves back to 3rd and closes the gap on 2nd-placed Geelong.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 44.7 (Last week 43.3)
2 (2) Geelong 28.4 (32.1)
3 (4) Carlton 22.3 (16.3)
4 (3) Hawthorn 20.1 (21.8)
5 (5) West Coast 10.9 (10.0)
6 (6) Sydney 6.8 (6.9)
7 (7) St. Kilda 5.3 (5.3)
8 (8) North Melbourne 2.2 (2.6)
9 (10) Essendon -2.2 (-6.2)
10 (9) Melbourne -5.4 (0.3)
11 (12) Western Bulldogs -7.6 (-13.5)
12 (11) Fremantle -12.2 (-12.6)
13 (14) Adelaide -18.9 (-19.7)
14 (13) Richmond -19.0 (-14.7)
15 (15) Brisbane -28.2 (-28.3)
16 (16) Port Adelaide -28.9 (-29.9)
17 (17) Gold Coast -48.9 (-48.6)

AFL Power Rankings - Round 14

West Coast's unexpected win over Carlton has re-arranged the top half of the rankings, with the Hawks taking over third spot from the Blues, and the Eagles moving up to fifth.

1 (Last week 1) Collingwood 43.3 (Last week 46.1)
2 (2) Geelong 32.1 (32.4)
3 (4) Hawthorn 21.8 (18.3)
4 (3) Carlton 16.3 (22.5)
5 (7) West Coast 10.0 (4.5)
6 (6) Sydney 6.9 (4.8)
7 (5) St. Kilda 5.3 (5.7)
8 (8) North Melbourne 2.6 (-0.1)
9 (9) Melbourne 0.3 (-0.4)
10 (10) Essendon -6.2 (-3.4)
11 (12) Fremantle -12.6 (-13.4)
12 (11) Western Bulldogs -13.5 (-13.2)
13 (13) Richmond -14.7 (-13.4)
14 (14) Adelaide -19.7 (-20.0)
15 (16) Brisbane -28.3 (-27.6)
16 (15) Port Adelaide -29.9 (-27.3)
17 (17) Gold Coast -48.6 (-49.3)

Debut Albums Rock!: Which Number Albums Are The Best?

Following on from my evidence suggesting that the best tracks on great albums are weighted towards the front of the album - particularly opening tracks - I've gone on to see if the most highly rated albums tend to be albums that are early in a act's career. What I did was go back to the Best Ever Albums website, and note down for each of the Top 100 highest-ranked albums what album number it was in the act's chronology (for example, OK Computer is album No.3 for Radiohead). I excluded "Magical Mystery Tour" by the Beatles, which was originally an EP, and "Kind Of Blue" by Miles Davis, because it was too hard to work out which number it was (it was high). The graph below shows the outcomes:



As I expected, the top-ranked albums tend to be earlier albums within a band's chronology, with about one-fifth of the "Top 98" being debut albums, and about another 30 per cent being either the second or third album. After that, there is a general downward trend, which is in part to be expected, given that many great acts don't make it past a sixth album.

Opening Tracks Rock!: What Are The Best Track Numbers On Albums?

For a long time I've believed that a great album needs a great opening track, and probably a good closer too. To test this theory, I went through the top 50 ranked albums at Best Ever Albums (except for monster albums "The White Album" and "The Wall") and noted down all the top-ranked tracks (as voted by the site's members; note that one album can have multiple top-ranked tracks). And here are the results in graphical form:



OK, it's still a small sample, but my theory about great albums tending to have great opening tracks is looking pretty good. It also appears you need some heavy hitters around the Track 2 to Track 5 mark. After that, it drops off a bit; the results for Track 6 to Track 9 are all about the same, and it appears that you don't really need a good closer at all given the results for Track 10 onwards (although many older albums did end at Track 9). Actually, this kind of makes sense when you think about it: OK Computer? "The Tourist" was the last track - there were better ones. Dark Side Of The Moon? "Eclipse" was the last track - that was almost a coda. And so on.

Now to test my theory if great bands also tend to have great first albums...