I probably should have reminded Investors at the back end of last week's paltry profit that we would, as published protocol insists, be ratcheting back line bets this week as we come out of the period where, historically, the Line Fund has been at its most profitable, but I suspect some subliminal irony shield may have deployed and protected me from providing this reminder.

West Coast's unexpected draw with the Gold Coast on Saturday stopped it from making more significant inroads into the Hawks' lead on ChiPS Team Ratings this weekend. In the end, the Hawks' Friday night loss to the Tigers cost it 3.7 Rating Points (RPs) and the Eagles' draw cost it 2.6 RPs of its own, leaving the Eagles still over 16 RPs adrift in second. 

Investors enjoyed only their second profitable round in nine weeks as Port Adelaide, their sole wager, comfortably covered the spread to add 4.5c to the Line Fund and 3c to the Overall Portfolio. That portfolio is now down by about 33c on the season.

After two weeks of fervent and, ultimately, futile and fruitless forays into the wagering markets, this week's lone line bet comes as a welcome pause.

This week, 10 teams in four clusters changed Ranks on ChiPS

When I originally conceived the idea to separate the more technical of MoS blog posts from those that were more applied by establishing a Statistical Analysis journal for the former and a Wagers & Tips journal for the latter, the purpose was to allow visitors to choose the types of posts they preferred to read. What I now appreciate after this season is that the demarcation also serves to shield the credibility of those more technical posts from the stark reality of what happens when I apply their conclusions.

The Australian Coat of Arms bears images of both a Kangaroo and an Emu, these animals having been chosen for the task, it's said, because they're both unable to take a backward step.

The Hawks now hold a commanding 13 Rating Points (RPs) lead over the rest of the competition after having grabbed more than 7 RPs from the Swans this past weekend.

I think it's probably about time to call this year as a loss-maker for MoS.

We're often advised to "Be careful what you wish for", and I'm wondering now about the wisdom of my desire to see more activity from the Funds than we'd seen recently.

It was a week for tweaks rather than wholesale ChiPS re-Rankings as six teams were shuffled by just a single place and only one, St Kilda, was demoted by a couple of places.

Only the most speculative of the wagers failed to provide a return this week, the three others combining to lift the value of the Head-to-Head Fund by a little over 6c and, in turn, lift the value of the Overall Portfolio by almost 2.5c.

In a week where seven home team are giving start and the two others aren't receiving much, the Line Fund has opted to keep its wallet in its pocket, leaving the Head-to-Head Fund's four forays as the round's only activity for Investors.

The two losing favourites were severely punished by ChiPS over the weekend, not so much because they lost, but because they did so by such huge margins

After a round in which the football was very much secondary to the tragedy that proceeded it, it seems almost inappropriate to fuss about its results.

So far this season 12 teams have played after a bye in the previous week and their collective record is just 4 wins and 8 losses. I'm hoping that the two MoS Funds, who both determined to nominate last weekend as their impromptu "bye", fare a little better this weekend.

First up this week, a correction. Last week's ChiPS Ratings for Geelong and Melbourne were slightly in error because I neglected to input the scores for their game into the relevant Official ChiPS Spreadsheet.

The Swans were the only favourites to lose this weekend and victory margins in all games were under 40 points, which made for a round of relatively strong performances by all MoS Tipster and Predictor groups.

For the first time in a home and away season round since I can remember - which must surely make it at least four or five weeks - none of the MoS Funds has seen fit to place a wager.

Some unexpected results on the weekend led to larger-than-normal changes in ChiPS Team Ratings, which, in turn, led to four pairs of teams trading places on ChiPS Rankings.