Now things are getting a little out of hand.

Now the number of lopsided contests and blowout results in this AFL season is starting to become ridiculous.

Of the past 20 matches, eight have been decided by more than 10 goals. Three have produced margins of more than 20 goals.

And today, the situation got really ugly. In fact, it was a black day for the code - and one that will only exacerbate the poor crowd figures this season, and feed the perception that the league's equalisation policies, principally the national draft and salary cap, are not working.

Now we seem to have a handful of rich and powerful clubs, who steamroll everything in their path, and then we have the impoverished and weak who prop up the foot of the table.

The four Round 20 matches played today were decided by a total of 365 points - at an average winning margin of over 91 points - which must have been about the least competitive day of VFL/AFL footy in history.

That's a hunch, an educated guess - with very little science to back up my argument because I haven't had time to pore through 115 years of records - but I'll throw open the challenge to any BPL reader: which four games played on any one day in footy history have been decided by a greater average margin?

Geelong beat Gold Coast by 150 points at Skilled Stadium (following on from last week's 186-point coach-killer result against Melbourne last week), Carlton squashed the Demons by 76 and, tonight, Collingwood - with 44 shots on goal - obliterated Port Adelaide, who managed just six shots at the big sticks, by 138 points.

Amid that carnage, Essendon held on to beat Sydney by a point at Etihad Stadium tonight when Adam Goodes missed a shot on goal after the siren*. If it wasn't for that match, the average winning margin would have been 121 points! And I'm confident in saying no Saturday in VFL/AFL history could touch that particular record.

This is not healthy. No-one will be happy about this turn of events - not the vanquished clubs, not the bookmakers which are shelling out on favourites week after week, and least of all the AFL which has prided itself on its level playing field.

For the first time in years, there is a sense of inevitability about four or five matches each round. Geelong and Collingwood don't lose; Gold Coast and Port Adelaide rarely win. And when they play each other, as they did this weekend, well it's time to avert your eyes because the result aint pretty.

So far this year there has been 38 matches decided by 10 goals or more. Last year, that figure (until the same point of the season) was 30. So on that small sample, the number of blowouts has increased by more than 26%.

Sure, the introduction of the Gold Coast Suns has not helped matters, but they've probably exceeded expectations with their three wins.

Next year, the situation looks like getting worse. Then, another bunch of wet-behind-the-ears kids will take the field in Greater Western Sydney's grey-and-orange guernsey, so there'll be two young, inexperienced, frail and largely uncompetitive teams running around.

The weekend's results come hard on the heels of news reports this week that show the average attendance this year has fallen to 35,718 (from the 2010 figure of 36,908). It is the first time since late in 2006 that the average figure has fallen below 36,000.

They also come after a week in which the league has had to fend off accusations that it's turned a blind eye to Melbourne supposed 'tanking' in Dean Bailey's first two seasons, and also that it's stood idly by while Adelaide's Phil Davis has been poached by GWS in contravention of its rules.

So, by any measure, it's been a horror week for the league. Now to add to their worries - to give them one more bushfire to fight - they're confronted by perhaps the most serious issue of all: how to make their code competitive again.

(* As a side-issue, what on earth were the Channel 10 programmers thinking when they scheduled Port v Collingwood as their Saturday night fare ahead of Essendon v Sydney? I can't imagine anyone but the most avid Pie fan sitting through more than about 10 minutes of that turgid spectacle - while the Essendon game had much more at stake, and was always going to be a better contest. Love to hear their rationale on that inspired decision ...)