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Saturday afternoon football returns to Melbourne for the 2013 season with the Western Bulldogs hosting the Brisbane Lions at Etihad Stadium. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 1.40pm AEDT.
In what looms as one of the more intriguing match ups for round one, both teams will be desperate to kick start their respective campaigns with a win.
The Bulldogs enter the 2013 season with a focus on player development after welcoming a number of exciting new faces to the club in the off-season.
First round draft picks Jake Stringer, Jackson Macrae and Nathan Hrovat will be joined by former Eagle Koby Stevens in what the club is hoping will be its next generation of star players.
While the Bulldogs have gone young Brisbane went for experience during the break, signing former Demon Brent Moloney as a free agent and also securing the services of Stefan Martin.
The two clubs’ off-season recruiting strategies may have differed and so will their expectations in 2013.
After finishing the 2012 season in good form and impressing throughout the NAB Cup, Brisbane coach Michael Voss will be looking for a finals berth for his squad.
For Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney, avoiding the bottom four will be a great result.
The Bulldogs’ off-season injection of youth will be a key to the club’s long term fortunes but in this clash they will be looking towards their slightly more experienced players to give them a lift.
The likes of Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis, Liam Jones and Luke Dahlhaus need to stand up and provide support for older heads Adam Cooney, Robert Murphy and Daniel Cross who can’t get it all done by themselves.
For the Lions, Jonathan Brown will always be the star of the show but what allowed Brisbane to finish last season so strongly was the lift from its young brigade.
If players such as Patrick Karnezis, Dayne Zorko, Claye Beams and Pearce Hanley start 2013 as they finished 2012, the Dogs may be in trouble.
One stat that is hard to ignore is the recent history between the two sides. In the two 2012 meetings, Brisbane was victorious on both occasions by a combined total of 125 points.
The second of these clashes took place at Etihad Stadium and it is fair to say that the ground holds no demons for the Lions’ playing group.
On both occasions it was a familiar story for the Dogs, who struggled to get anything going on their forward line, managing just seven and nine goals respectively.
At the other end of the scale, Brisbane kicked 18 and 19 goals.
Injury wise, the Bulldogs enter the game in rough shape with captain and gun midfielder Matthew Boyd to miss the first three weeks of the season with a calf strain.
Brisbane too will have members of its best 22 missing, with Simon Black, Matthew Leuenberger and Brent Staker unlikely to make the trip south.
On paper, the edge is certainly with Brisbane for this clash but round one has already thrown up some surprising results. Is this set to be another?
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