AFL Aussie Rules
2010-05-21 - Collingwood Magpies vs Geelong Cats
A Sports Betting Pick by Costanzo
Aussie Rules : Australia : AFL Premiership
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne
Friday 21st May 2010, Start 19:42 AEST
This is the matchup of the year to date. It is only Round 9 but this fixture in front of a full-house of about 90,000 fans at the MCG will tell us a lot about these two sides.
I will be fortunate enough to be seated in the Great Southern Stand to watch my beloved Cats attempt to play down the hype that is surrounding the Magpies.
Collingwood Magpies (1st, 7-1) Form : WWWWWW
The Pies have impressed in their last few games. They have won all matches convincingly and have had many goal scorers in all these games. This quality will need to be repeated to get on top of Geelong on Friday night.
Up forward the Pies have many options led by a rejuvenated Travis Cloke. He will again need to be at his best in order to take the pressure off the likes of Chris Dawes and John Anthony. The smaller guys like Alan Didak and Leon Davis will also be required to chip in for the Pies.
The defence of the Pies has been fairly solid and Nick Maxwell has been solid and will need the assistance of Ben Reid and Harry O’Brien to even have a sniff against a Cats forward line that is unpredictable but always manages to post a score.
In the centre the Pies will be led by an in form Dane Swan who will need another game of over 30 touches to give the Pies a shot at a win. Dayne Beams, Luke Ball and Dale Thomas will all need to be at or very close to their best in order to challenge the Cats.
Geelong Cats (2nd, 6-2) Form : WLWWWW
Geelong thrashed Brisbane last Saturday and never looked troubled. The key to their game was the ease in which they moved the ball from back to front. They converted their opportunities and had countless scoreboard contributors.
The defence will need to be prepared for a different challenge this week as the bigger bodies of Harry Taylor and Josh Hunt may be required to match up against some smaller Pies forwards. Having said that Matthew Scarlett is having another stellar season and should find himself with the job on Cloke or Anthony, and you can expect Scarlett to do well again.
The Cats’ midfield is the best strength of this even Geelong team. With two of the last three Brownlow Medallists in Jimmy Bartel and Gary Ablett Jr, they are perhaps the best centreline since the days of the Fab 4 in Brisbane’s golden era of the early 00’s. They will be supported by Joel Selwood, who after a slow start has now found his feet this season.
Also chipping in are Shannon Byrnes, Cameron Ling and the quick David Wojcinski. Paul Chapman will be the player to watch in the midfield for the Cats...if he is at his best he will kick a couple of goals and dominate in the middle.
In the forward line for the Cats is an in form Steve Johnson who is coming off a bag of 6 goals last week. Cam Mooney has impressed this season with his lead up work and you can expect some similar efforts again this week.
Travis Varcoe and Matthew Stokes will apply the forward pressure and do the crumbing work that should result in a few goals. James Podsiadly returns after general soreness saw him rested last week. In his first game at the home of football he will be called on to reproduce some of his earlier efforts of this season.
The Betting Tip
Take Geelong to win. I expect that it could be close, but the class of the Cats will prevail
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Geelong to win by 1-39 points at 2.48 at Centrebet(Medium Stakes)
