Bonz
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Collingwood vs Sydney Swans
When: Friday, 11th April, 7:10pm local time (7:40aest)
Venue: Adelaide Oval (Gather Round).
Weather: Expected to be around 21 degrees, minimal wind, no rain.
Season so far
Sydney: Whilst the Swans started with two losses, they were against arguably the two hottest teams in the league with Hawthorn and Brisbane, admittedly the Swans were competitive in both of these matches with many of their best 22 out.
In the last few weeks, we have rebounded, a gutsy win in Perth over Fremantle was backed up with a great performance against North. If you had told me at the start of the season that we would be 2-2 whilst missing Gulden, Mills, McDonald, Melican, Cunningham, Fox, Papley and McInerney I probably wouldn't have believed you.
Collingwood: Collingwood started their season very poorly against GWS, in fact it was so poor that they have already complained to the AFL about opening round and traveling to NSW (To quote Cox, "Let's not forget it's a national competition).
Admittedly they have rebounded since then with victories over the struggling Port, WB and Carlton. Majority of Collingwood fans are admittedly quote happy with where they are at right now, as beating Carlton is second only to winning a Grand Final.
Injuries:
Sydney: Sydney will be without Mills, Adams, Papley, Gulden, Melican and McDonald who will be eased back this week.
Collingwood: Collingwood have today ruled out De Goey and Shultz from this weekend's game, Dan Houston has already been suspended. If Collingwood win or have a close match this weekend look to the media being even more annoying than Toby Greene's face as they talk about how brave Collingwood were in the face of adversity whilst missing three of their players.
What to expect from each side:
Sydney: The changes Dean Cox has made to the Swans are slowly but surely starting to bare fruit, whilst keeping our dash and dare from the Longmire years, we have added a bit more tempo and control at times.
The other big change from the Swans has been around our contested game, with more players going in at the contest rather than waiting on the outside, this hasn't only been Rowbottom either, with Heeney up on his contested disposals and playing more of an inside role.
Collingwood: Collingwood haven't greatly changed their side from previous seasons, with a strong all round team defence (headlined by Moore) being the cornerstone, whilst chaos ball reigns supreme bringing their small forwards into the game.
I wonder if they may play a bit of keeping a off/ tempo football this week, they do have the foot skills to do this and it has proven effective against us in the past, it may also assist with changing the tempo of the game De Goey and Shultz both being out.
Final thoughts:
Collingwood have been inconsistent within their matches this season, and honestly haven't played like a 3-1 team. Whilst on paper they should be
favourite simply due to our injury list I do honestly believe this is a good match up for us.
Look to Jordan to tag Daicos, if we can provide support to him and potentially have Rowbottom go head to head with Pendlebury around the contest, and potentially Hayward to Howe. I can see this being a great result for us if we keep our cool.
The last thing we can afford to do this weekend is blast away, between Moore, Frampton, Howe and Maynard Collingwood have an elite group of receivers in their defensive footy. If we can slow down the play when required, change our angles but at the same time not be afraid to show a little dash and dare... I think we have this.
Sydney by 17 points.
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