The standard of the league has improved ten fold the last 5 years. Weickhardt & Cooke to Cheltenham also huge ins for SFNL
Perhaps the standard in "general" however I'm certain the St Pauls team of 2011/13 would have trounced the 2018 team (no disrespect to them) as would the St Kilda City team of 07/09. The main issue was whilst there was usually 2 - 3 top teams, the rest of Div 1 wasn't great so now it seems there's a lot more evenness across the board which is great for the competition. Whether the points system has any impact on this is also a consideration.