The Roar's AFL expert tips and predictions: Round 10

Hello Roarers and welcome to another week of AFL Expert tips. We are neck and neck in the tipping race at the moment with myself and BJ Conkey on 57, leading Michael di Fabrizio and The Crowd on 56.

Ten rounds into the season and this is still truly anyone’s game.

This week, however, perhaps everyone will have a chance to get one up on me – or vice versa – as I make a pick that I suspect will be against the pack, selecting my beloved North Melbourne to upset the Sydney Swans on Friday night at the SCG.

Can you really call it an upset when North is 9-0 and two games clear on top of the ladder? Apparently you can because the team is out to nearly $3 odds with betting companies.

Both teams have a squadron of hard nuts in the middle, quality ruck divisions, firepower-filled forward lines, and underrated defensive units, making this one very hard to pick. The Swans have the home ground advantage but North have the Farren Ray factor. North it is for me.

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The other corker this week will be the match been Adelaide and GWS, wherein my tipping process involved a lot of umming and ahhing. It’s a tough game to call with the Giants arguably in better form, but the Crows boasting a huge home ground advantage.

The Giants took a great win over the Bulldogs last week but they will have their maturity tested this week when asked to beat a fellow top eight side away from home, something they are yet to do so far in 2016.

The Crows are an excellent side and possess the best forward line in the league. That said, the Giants have a significantly deeper midfield and that will prove to be the difference here. Though there is a chance that some of the more experienced heads among the Crows could upset that plan.

Two other matches of interest are between Melbourne and Port Adelaide, and Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs. The Dees and Dogs look like the favourites here but there’s definitely some potential for an upset with Melbourne’s performance still a bit up and down from week to week and Collingwood building in confidence after two consecutive big wins.

Hawthorn and Geelong will get the chance to bounce back from disappointing losses, coming up against Brisbane and Carlton respectively. The Hawks will be travelling to the Gabba for the first time since 2008 if you can believe it, but they should find their feet there well enough.

St Kilda should get their fourth win of the year when they come up against Fremantle and it will be much the same for Richmond when they play Essendon in the annual Dreamtime at the ‘G match.

Last and certainly least in terms of watchability will be West Coast and Gold Coast at Domain Stadium. The team who likes winning by a lot at home, playing the team who likes losing by a lot (well, they probably don’t like it, but they do it a lot). An Eagles victory is my lock of the week and it could easily be a 100-plus thumping.

Michael DiFabrizio
Winning ten games in a row is hard, but North Melbourne are in a position to pull it off heading into Friday night’s game against the Swans.

The problem is, I like Sydney. Especially at the SCG. The closest anyone has gotten to the Swans on their home deck this season is 25 points and that was the high-flying GWS Giants.

Aside from that match, they’ve knocked over West Coast by 39 and registered two wins by 80-plus (against Collingwood and Essendon) at the ground. Like North’s win streak, this trend is hard to ignore.

The Roos have continued to show strong signs as the season has progressed and they always seem to have an answer. But for this one, I’m going with the red and white.

Melbourne versus Port Adelaide at Alice Springs was the other game I was left to grapple with this week.

Despite two losses in a row for the Power, it’s worth noting that both defeats were by less than ten points. It’s also probably fair to make the call that another defeat this week would spell season over. The stakes are high.

Melbourne aren’t always the best side to go with coming off a win, either. That said, the Dees are playing better footy right now. I’ll stick with them.

BJ Conkey
The Kangaroos have to lose eventually, right? The Swans back on their home turf after conquering Hawthorn at the MCG are too much of a force to tip against despite North Melbourne’s consistency.

The Giants just keep chugging along and deserve their third place on the ladder. Considering they’ve won four out of five games away from Sydney this season the Adelaide Oval shouldn’t be too intimidating and neither should the opposition. Eddie Betts has struggled to kick goals in recent weeks and if the Giants can shut him down, they’ll be hard to beat.

The Magpies have surprised many, including me, with the way they’ve bounced back to form. But even with an impressive win over Geelong their consistency still bothers me. Jack Redpath will be a key inclusion for their opponents the Western Bulldogs. Collingwood will be out to recreate the fast start from their win over Geelong and therefore the first quarter could be the key.