The AFL is enduring its most lop-sided start to a season since first moving to a 16-team competition in 1995.
While the league's crowds may be at record highs, the ladder after 10 rounds says the game has never been more predictable and there have never been so many strong teams but equally so many obviously poor teams at this stage of the season.
It has not been uncommon in the AFL in recent years for one stand-out team to emerge by this stage of the season nor has it been common for one equally poor team to emerge.
Indeed back in 2000 the gap on the ladder between the top-placed team Essendon and the bottom-placed team in St Kilda after 10 rounds was bigger (38 points) than it currently is between the ladder-leading Hawthorn and bottom-placed Melbourne (32 points).
But the gap has never been this large after 10 rounds, since the 16-team competition began in 1995, between the teams in second and 15th position and between fourth and 13th position indicating a huge gulf has opened up in the AFL in 2008.
At the moment reigning premier Geelong is in second place with nine wins and one loss - the same as Hawthorn - leaving them a massive eight games clear of 15th-placed Fremantle, which like Melbourne has won just one game.
And even between fourth-placed Adelaide and 13th-placed West Coast there is a five-game gap - seven wins to two - even though the Eagles actually beat the Crows a fortnight ago.
Even in 2001 when three teams - Essendon, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide - all had eight wins and two losses after ten rounds while Fremantle was winless - the overall gap between the top two and bottom two and top four and the bottom four was not as wide as it is this season with just three games separating the 13th-placed Kangaroos from fourth-placed Carlton after 10 rounds.
And comparing the current season with the league's closest season in recent times - 1997 - will not make pretty reading for those who claim the current competition has never been more close and exciting.
That season, just three wins separated first from 15th after 10 rounds and just two wins separated the teams in fourth to 13th place.
However the coaches of some of this year's leading teams and struggling teams believe the competition is not as lop-sided as it appears to be.
Hawthorn's Alastair Clarkson was quick to remind his press conference on Friday that it was only a fortnight ago when there was a series of upset results.
"Two weeks ago we saw three of the top four sides knocked off and we were the only side that won out of the top four that weekend and even then we were really challenged by the Demons," he said.
"For instance the ladder positions this week (first to 14th) would suggest we are going to have a comfortable victory (over Essendon) but we know how much preparation we have done for this game and how difficult the assignment is going to be."
Essendon coach Matthew Knights for his part says 'it is difficult to get a line on' whether the gap between the bottom and top sides is increasing.
"Some weeks it seems that way and other weeks it doesn't," he said.
"When you see Melbourne play Hawthorn a couple of