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Saturday’s games on the face of it appear easy to predict, with three of the four home teams expected to win.
The one exception is the first game between Hawthorn and West Coast, in which the Eagles fly into town with their team strengthened by the long-awaited return of Nic Naitanui and also of Willie Rioli.
The Hawks, on the other hand, are showing signs of putting the cue in the rack and have included first gamer Oliver Hanrahan, one of only two new inclusions in Round 15. Hawthorn will also be without the elite AFL goal kicker Jarryd Roughead, who returned last week after a spell in the twos.
On a positive note, evergreen AFL elite game player Shaun Burgoyne will draw level on games played for Hawthorn with the legendary captain and coach David Parkin and also Darren Pritchard. Remember this is Burgoyne’s second club – he has served with distinction.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
Liam Shiels will draw level with Bert Mills, a 1930s player who was a three-time best and fairest and captained and coached the Hawks.
For West Coast, Andrew Gaff will equal Adam Selwood’s tally of games for the Eagles, while the underrated Brad Sheppard will match Matt Rosa.
Sydney will celebrate Will Hayward’s 50th game for the club and should account for the Gold Coast Suns in the twilight game at the SCG.
Collingwood’s home game at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night features one of the few games the club plays at Docklands, but with last week’s scrappy performance against the Bulldogs at the same venue still fresh in their minds, we can expect an improved performance against North Melbourne, the other team introducing new blood, in the form of Kyron Hayden.
For Collingwood, Steele Sidebottom – who in a very uncharacteristic performance kicked out of bounds three times last week – will this week climb to share position 23 on Collingwood’s all-time top 100 game players list with Les Hughes and Leon Davis. Hughes was known as ‘Lofty’ or ‘Flapper’ and was well regarded by all. Born in 1884, he started at the Magpies in 1908 and played in three premierships and four other grand finals. In his first grand final (1910) he was flattened just after the game started.
Ben Reid also climbs a bit higher up the list, this week equalling Dick Condon and Des Healy.
For North Melbourne, Todd Goldstein will equal Stephen McCann and Ben Cunnington will equal Laurie ‘Twinkletoes’ Dwyer.
In the final game on Saturday night Port Adelaide will need to be on form to defeat the Western Bulldogs, who have not been given enough credit for their narrow loss to Collingwood. Hamish Hartlett will join Josh Francou in Port Adelaide’s top 20 game players of all time, while Tom Jonas will equal Jarred Schofield.
For Western Bulldogs, captain Easton Wood, the most experienced Bulldog on the park, will equal some big names from the Bulldogs past history: Alan Hopkins, Jim Gallagher and David Thorpe. Hopkins, cruelly named ‘Banana Legs’ was a high vote winner in the Brownlow Medal.
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