MAFL 2010 : Round 13 - Part I

And so we enter the first half - well five-eighths actually - of the split Round 13.

Recommended Portfolio holders have wagers in four of the week's five games, with the Eagles v Dogs clash the only one failing to attract the interest of at least one Fund. New Heritage is the boldest Fund (who'd have guessed?), wagering about 22% of the Fund on three bets including two that are for around 10% of the Fund both of which are on teams that are favourites but by no means raging hot ones in the form of the Hawks and Lions. The third bet is a contrarian, away team wager on Port Adelaide that, when offset by the wagers of Prudence and the Heuristic-Based Funds on the Roos in the same game, makes the outcome at best a small profit for those with the Recommended Portfolio.

Four other Funds have also made three wagers, Shadow, the Heuristic-Based and ELO-Line Funds, all of which are risking 15% of their respective Funds, and Prudence, which is risking a little over one-half of that percentage.

Shadow, you'll remember, has been stripped of its Heuristic-Based Fund managing duties, this onerous responsibility having now been placed in the hands of Short-Term Memory I, a heuristic which, as I've previously noted, has the equivalent footballing knowledge of a goldfish.

Hope has taken the weekend off, though it does look likely to make two wagers in the three games next weekend.

So that's 15 wagers in total this week for those with the Recommended Portfolio, collectively worth about 12% of the entire Fund.

Here's the detail:

From this week's Ready Reckoner it's fairly easy to see that Hawks and Lions victories are required for the profitability of all portfolios bar MIN#002's. His portfolio instead requires a Blues victory, coupled with a win by either of the Hawks or the Lions.

There's a modicum of disagreement about three of the weekend's games, and unanimity or near to it for other two.

Here are the details:

• Hawthorn are the week's only unanimous favourites. They take on Essendon on Friday night. Tipped margins of victory range from a low of 9 points to a high of 30 points.
• Carlton are 11-4 favourites over Fremantle, though Freo has the moderately credentialled Follow The Streak and Ride Your Luck in its corner.
• Brisbane are 11-4 favourites over Richmond. Amongst the Tiger supporters are Easily Impressed I, and Short-Term Memory I and II, which makes for a formidable, albeit inanimate supporter-base if tipping form is anything to go by.
• The Roos are 11-4 favourites over Port Adelaide. Easily Impressed II and Short-Term Memory II are both siding with the underdogs.
• The Dogs are 14-1 favourites over the at-home Eagles. Some signs of nervousness are, however, evident amongst those tipping the Dogs: three of the Margin Tippers are predicting Dog victory margins under 3 goals.

I almost didn't bother posting the HELP predictions for the week, but pondered what I'd do if HELP suddenly started making tips superior to those which I could instead make using the spare change in my pocket. It'd look a little suspicious if HELP's best performances were those I posted about after the event, not having pre-published its predictions beforehand.

So, unadorned by commentary, here they are:

With probability estimates this extreme HELP will record an aggregate probability score of about -17 for the round if all line results are unfavourable, and a score of about +15 if all are favourable, which represents about one-quarter of the aggregate score it's painstakingly accumulated across the first 11 rounds of the season.