I think the next 2 rounds of matches will really sort things out. All of the next round's matches are between teams that are close to each other in the Ranks so they will be pushing each other into their relative positions.

There is a bunch of  4 teams on 37 points and the only other team that will actually join the Ranks proper by tournament's end is Tonga and I think they will push Peace Team down a bit.

Pity we haven't managed to see a Canada v  Sweden match yet to really see whether Canada's record against USA is really the reason they are ranked where they are.

Wait till tournament's end before we see if there is any tweeking needs to be done.

I don't reckon any will be needed.

Cam

I think Troy is right, the same issue remains, teams at the top of Div 2 will push up in points with wins against lower sides, and teams at the bottom of Div 1 will lose points due to playing more sides above them.  So we will sometimes see a crossing over.

The only solutions are a major overhaul of the system, which I do not propose any time soon, or more games amongst those teams that span the boundary between Div 1 and Div 2, which is why that first day of seeding matches was important for this system.  Fortunately that boundary will likely change each tournament, and as more regional games are played that will help too (e.g. European Championships, Oceania Championships).

As for Canada, they're a little unlucky, but they do seem to keep losing.  Great effort to push NZ all the way, but lost.  Played lower sides, and lost.  Keep pushing the US each year, but generally lose.

They need to organise a tour to Europe or something and play a wider mix of teams, get used to travel for tournaments.  Easier said than done but would be a handy experience.

AFL Website now shows South Africa vs Great Britain at 3pm with Semi Finals at 11am and 1pm. Please confirm?

Re the schedule for tomorrow, investigating this now!

Spoke to the AFL just now and they confirmed the change.  The Victorian Premier will attend and they wanted the top semi finals to be on at that time, they consulted the countries involved and got the okay.  It is now correct above.  Will post a new story to draw attention to it as well.

Hey Guys, Canada is only 0.73 rating points below Peace Team at this stage in the IC but because there are 2 countries in between it makes the difference between Canada and Peace team look a lot larger than it really is.

Flyinghigh suggests that the bottom will always look messy but really the bottom teams are all properly placed. I think the middle will tend to look messy whilst we have new teams entering the Ranks.

We have 4 teams all on 37points and Tonga is about to joih in with around 40 points. 5 of its 8 provisional games have been against teams where the rating gap was more than 10 points and since they lose no points in those matches they are still around 40points.

Its not the system that is the problem (I'm not suggesting we scrap the IC's) it is the fact that we still only have 19 fully ranked teams five of which are still 10 games or less and we keep having too many contests between teams that are miles apart in standard(rating gap larger than 10.00 points). That problem will slowly disappear as we have more regional competitions.

As you say Brett Canada do tend to keep losing and I don't mean to be brutal here but I think there are many who possibly hold Canada up as a Shining Light (because they have been around for along time and of the record against USA) and consequently, dare I say it, overrate them.

I think by IC11 end both Canada and Peace Team will have the rating points they deserve but because of the traffic jam around 40-37 points some teams might be ranked slightly higher than they probably deserve.(but only one or two places at most)

Canada has beaten SA (back in 2002 and 2005) Sweden(in 2008)(both lower then)and PeaceTeam(only teams currently ranked higher)they have lost to all other higher ranked teams(except USA once).

Peace Team lose to France tomorrow and they lose 2.83 points to 35.03 which puts them down lower than Canada, Sweden and Germany. Canada win tomorrow against Japan they climb up 2.56 points to 39.70.

I still have much faith in the system and it will get better as we get a few more teams into the ranks.

Cam