Some now-familiar early-season coyness by the bookmakers in posting totals markets meant that this post had to be delayed until today (Wednesday). Those markets only popped up onto the websites sometime early this afternoon - while I was on a client site as fate would have it, though I doubt they moved much if at all before I captured them.

I'm back this week and feeling much like Tennyson (ie a little rusty) but looking forward to resuming the routine.

Last year was a very good one here on MoS, with one or other of MoSSBODS' or MoSHBODS' algorithms out-tipping the bookmakers on head-to-head, margin and probability forecasting.

Given that, it would seem silly to change much at all - so I won't be.

MoSSBODS predicted the winner of the Grand Final and also went closest, amongst our four forecasters, to predicting the game Margin as well as the Home team and Away team scores.

MoSSBODS swapped Richmond and Adelaide this week, catapulting the Premiers into top spot and relegating the Minor Premiers to 3rd. MoSHBODS, conversely, had the Tigers closing the gap to the Swans but still finishing 3rd, and the Crows hanging on for 1st by about 3 points.

MoSSBODS_Marg, in tipping the Tigers, extended its lead at the top of the Leaderboard, finishing the season three tips clear of the pack on 135.5 from 207 (66%). The two RSMP Tipsters finished in joint 2nd place, one tip ahead of MoSHBODS_Marg.

This week, our lone contrarian forecaster is MoSSBODS who's narrowly come down in favour of the Tigers. All the other Head-to-Head Tipsters have gone with the Crows.

Sydney slipped back into 2nd on MoSSBODS this week, leaving the two MoS Systems now in perfect agreement about the order of the Top 6 teams. That result required MoSHBODS to make its only adjustment of the week, swapping GWS into 4th for Port Adelaide.

C_Marg's errant prediction of a Giants win was the only thing preventing a 2 from 2 performance from all the MoS Head-to-Head Tipsters this week. The all -Tipster average was, instead, 1.9 from 2.

Only C_Marg has dared tip against the favourites this week, it opting for an upset Giants win over the Tigers by about 3 points.

Sydney slipped back into 2nd on MoSSBODS this week, leaving the two MoS Systems now in perfect agreement about the order of the Top 6 teams. That result required MoSHBODS to make its only adjustment of the week, swapping GWS into 4th for Port Adelaide.

Only Home Sweet Home and Consult The Ladder tipped both winners this week, but that had little effect on the Leaderboard for the Head-to-Head Tipsters, which still has MoSSBODS_Marg two tips clear at the top.

With the bookmaking markets posted, all of the MoS algorithms that use prices as inputs have what they need to do what they do, so, the bye week notwithstanding, there's no reason not to post the full set of forecasts today.

MoSSBODS now rates Sydney as the top team, ahead of Adelaide and Richmond, while MoSHBODS has an unchanged Top 3 of Adelaide, Sydney and Richmond. On both Systems, the Ratings gap between Adelaide and Sydney is very small.

Finals, for the most part history shows, tend to follow the script, which is what we saw this weekend before the extraordinarily unscripted extra-time performance on Saturday evening.

With the bookmaking markets posted, all of the MoS algorithms that use prices as inputs have what they need to do what they do, so, the bye week notwithstanding, there's no reason not to post the full set of forecasts today.

MoSSBODS and MoSHBODS have identical Top 3s of Adelaide, Sydney then Richmond after the weekend's results, though they differ about the ordering, if not the composition of positions 4th to 6th.

The competition ladder and the TAB Bookmaker were relatively poor indicators of the winning teams and their margins this weekend.

This week, five teams are expected to score 100 points or more by at least one forecaster, the Brisbane Lions, Sydney, Port Adelaide and Essendon expected to do so by all four. MoSSBODS alone adds the Kangaroos to that list.

It's genuinely hard for me to believe that we're at the end of the home-and-away season already with the equivalent of only two regular rounds worth of games to be played.