Collingwood V Essendon - Match Preview

[Trojan82]

Preview: Collingwood v Essendon
By Jason Phelan
6/03/2009 8:57:00 AM

Where and when: Docklands, Friday March 6, 7.40pm AEDT
Broadcast: Channel 10

PRE-SEASON FORM GUIDE
Collingwood: The Pies have flexed their muscles early this year with convincing wins over West Coast and Richmond. It's a different story to the last two years which saw first-round NAB Cup exits to Adelaide (2008) and North Melbourne (2007). They fared little better in 2006 when Fremantle dispatched them in a quarter-final encounter at Subiaco Oval.

Essendon: Narrow victories over the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions have earned the Bombers this semi-final spot. They reached this stage last year, only to fall to eventual pre-season premier St Kilda. The Lions (2006) and Carlton (2007) stopped their previous campaigns at the first round.

PREPARATION
Collingwood: The Magpies were barely troubled by the Eagles in the first round, but responded well when challenged by the Tigers last week. The Pies concentrated on the task at hand rather than the circus surrounding Ben Cousins' Richmond debut and impressed in attack with 13 separate goalkickers.

Essendon: The Dons have shown patches of good form in the opening two rounds but losing Mark McVeigh for a couple weeks, on top of the long-term loss of midfielder Andrew Welsh, hasn't helped their cause. Jason Winderlich made a welcome return against the Lions last week, while David Hille, Hayden Skipworth and Jobe Watson were eye-catching at various stages.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Collingwood:
Dayne Beams: The young Queenslander created quite a buzz among Collingwood supporters with his game against the Tigers last week. If he can build on that performance against the Bombers he will be hard to remove from the line-up come round one.

Steele Sidebottom: A first look at an early draft pick is always anticipated and in Sidebottom's case, the build-up is heightened by his 10-goal performance for the Bushrangers in last year's TAC Cup grand final. It will be interesting to see how the Pies ease him into it.

Essendon:
Michael Hurley: The Bombers are set to unveil the highly-touted defender they swooped on at No. 5 in the NAB AFL Draft. Dustin Fletcher's heir-apparent will attract and generate plenty of interest in his first outing.

Brent Stanton: The important midfielder gets his first run of the season after overcoming an untimely quad injury. Despite the setback he is expected to see substantial game time against the Pies.

SUMMARY
Collingwood has impressed in its early contests and form alone would suggest a reasonably comfortable win here. However, the omission of Nick Maxwell, Josh Fraser and Harry O'Brien evens up the sides.

Matthew Knights has also chosen to give Dustin Fletcher and Andrew Lovett a spell, but the youthful Bombers will be led in attack by veteran duo Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas, who should give a good account of themselves.

PREDICTION
Collingwood by 18 points

Beams will be hard to remove from the line-up? Going out on a limb there Phelan

 

[joxstrap]

Watch out for the Cameron Wood out-of-the-air backheel goal late in the third quarter. It's going to happen.

I'm really hoping Beams can put in another similar or better performance tonight, I'm oddly pumped for a NAB game.

 

[mattys123]

I'm thinking Leight Brown or the "Bear" Chris Bryan to go forward when young Hurley comes on, teach him 1st hand about the physical requirements of senior footy.

I really want to see Rusty, no surprise there, and think this is the ideal game to start him up forward and give him some small runs in the midfield.

Ready to see the "Showdown" or at the moment I'd call it the "Slowdown" between Chris Bryan and Cameron Wood for the vacant 2nd ruck position, if only we could put Bryan's determination and will into Wood's skillful body, we'd have the perfect ruck.

 

[Optimax]

I'm thinking Leight Brown or the "Bear" Chris Bryan to go forward when young Hurley comes on, teach him 1st hand about the physical requirements of senior footy.

If you want that happen its Bryan's job.

Quite likely to id imagine given that Bryan has done alot of work at FF/CHF throughtout the preseason training drills

 

[Skade]

Yeaaahhhhhh......bring on Rusty, can't wait to see this kid play.

 

[Dave The Man]

Where is the From?

 

[unplugged]

Where is the From?

http://www.afl.com.au/Results/tabid...play=1&seasonid=72&roundid=732&fixtureid=5230

If you meant 'this'.

 

[abs_of_STEELE]

C'mon Rusty!