It's been anything but a usual week in the wagering markets for the AFL at the TAB, with speculation surrounding - and then actual - team changes leading to frequent and prolonged suspensions of some markets, significant delays in the posting of others, and a final set of prices fairly different from what we would have seen had teams been playing their regular squads.

A quiet week on ChiPS Team Ratings, with the only change of note the elevation of Fremantle into 5th at the expense of the Kangaroos.

On Saturday, GWS comfortably covered their 25.5 point spread, starting the weekend off in a winning way for Investors before Sunday and the Saints rolled around and the 26.5 points start they were receiving proved about 12 goals too little.

There were five home teams that the Head-to-Head Fund could have wagered on this week - those priced at $1.50 or more - but it opted to risk none of them, content to rest on its 2 from 3 performance over the course of the last three rounds.

That left the Line Fund responsible for the weekend's excitement and it chose to back up on the Giants, this week giving rather than receiving start, and to take a literal punt on the Saints for only the second time this season. 

Like the heads-up ending to a Texas Hold 'Em competition it was all mid-table CHiPS action this weekend in the AFL, with positions 4th to 11th all changing hands.

There's nothing to see here. Move along.

It's taken most of the season, but both the Head-to-Head and Line Funds seem now to have come to the same conclusion: that the TAB Bookmaker has been pricing home teams unattractively this year in both the head-to-head and line markets. Taking the time for wise reflection is often, but not always, the most lucrative course of action.

ChiPS jiggled the Rankings of another four pairs of teams this week, swapping the Roos and Freo in 4th and 5th, the Dogs and Pies in 7th and 8th, the Crows and Cats in 9th and 10th, and the Saints and Dees in 13th and 14th. More a light dusting than a clean-out-your-garage kind of weekend.

It's no longer news when the Funds finish a round down by a little, so I'll not spend much time relaying the details of that outcome yet again this weekend.

Investors can have Sunday off this weekend, Round 20's action, such as it is, all being confined to Friday and Saturday. On Friday, we've taken the Swans at -22.5 in the line market, while on Saturday we've a tiny head-to-head wager on the Dons at $4 along with two line bets, one of them on the Dons with 26.5 start, and the other on Port Adelaide giving 14.5 start.

ChiPS found reason to re-Rank seven teams this week, though only Port Adelaide moved by more than a single place, they slipping two spots into 11th, allowing the Cats and the Crows to grab 9th and 10th respectively.

It's almost certainly too late for the Line Fund to drag itself back into profit for the season, but it did show further evidence of the previously-elusive form this weekend, landing two of its three wagers and missing out by only a kick on landing all three.

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.