Sudden-death finals football continues this afternoon when the West Coast Eagles face a North Melbourne side on the rise, with the winning going onto meet Collingwood next weekend. We’ll have live scores from 3.15pm AEST.
It’s been several years in the making, but Brad Scott looks to have finally begun to engineer some positive results down at Arden St.
They come into this one as one of the best-performed teams in the competition through the second half of the season and will fancy their chances against the Eagles.
Both sides will be nervously awaiting the outcomes of pre-match fitness tests, with Daniel Wells (Kangaroos), Lachie Hansen (Kangaroos) and Josh Kennedy (Eagles) all doubtful starters.
The key for this one looks to be around the ground. Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell and Liam Anthony have been of the main drivers of North’s improvement this season and for them to advance beyond this week, they’ll need to be able to at least break even against the Eagles’ midfield of Daniel Kerr, Matt Priddis and Luke Shuey.
All-Australian ruckman Todd Goldstein will also play a critical role in the outcome, coming against unquestionably the best one-two punch ruck combination in the AFL in Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui.
On face value a home final should be enough to get the Eagles home, but the Eagles form has been wavering in the second half of the season on the back of a litany of injuries. While they’ve improved in recent weeks the jury is still out as to whether they’re approaching their best.
The two sides met in Tasmania back in round 15 and the Eagles were able to overturn a significant deficit to win by two points.
Should the Kangaroos’ younger brigade be able to aim up in the first taste of finals football, we could see a similiar margin today. Find out from 3.15pm AEST.
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