The scoreboard says Collingwood by four. The football says North Melbourne were the better side and walked off with nothing. Round 18, read honestly.
Every round the ladder pays whoever finished in front, and Round 18 is no different. But the scoreboard and the football do not always tell the same story, and this week they part company badly in one game.
This edition is a short read with one loud line in it. Most of the round was close to honest. One result was not, and it needs saying plainly.
North Melbourne are the clearest injustice of the round. Collingwood won by four, and the four points sit with the Magpies where the scoreboard put them. That result stands.
But the football had it the other way. On the day North Melbourne were the better side, in front by about one. They did the work of a team that wins and left with nothing.
Four points on the board, a game earned on the ground. When the margin is that thin and the football leans the other way, the losing side has every right to feel done.
Collingwood are the side the scoreboard flattered this week, and there is no sneer in saying it. They found a way to be four points in front at the siren, and finishing in front is its own skill.
But the football did not hand them this one. By the earned margin North Melbourne were the better team, level or a touch ahead. Collingwood banked the win without doing enough to deserve it on the day.
A win is a win. This one just came with less football underneath it than the four points suggest.
Away from that one game the round was largely honest. Sides that won on the football took what they earned, and there is no manufactured injustice to hang on them.
Hawthorn and GWS both had days bigger than their scoreboards let on, winning by less than the football was worth. That is under-reward, not robbery, and the wins were clean either way.
No other result this week screams for a rewrite. One game was wrong under the surface. The rest can be taken close to how it read.
The results stand. Collingwood have the four points and North Melbourne have none, and no honest reading changes the ladder.
What the football showed is a different question. On the day North Melbourne were the better side and the scoreboard did them no favours. Whether that shifts how these two are rated is for the reader to decide.
The results stand — nobody is rewriting the ladder. This is the football underneath the scoreboard. What it means for how you rate these sides is yours to weigh.