Will the West Coast Eagles home ground advantage be enough for them to snag the 4 points from the Roo’s?
I think so. Plus the fact that West Coast Eagles are coming off a huge win at Domain Stadium against the Bombers last week. There is no doubting that Domain Stadium serves the Eagles well. West Coast are back there again, for their second week in a row, to take on the North Melbourne.
I think everyone was a little shocked to see the quarter time score last week between West Coast Eagles and Essendon, when the Bombers were in front… Against West Coast… At home… The Eagles snapped out of their funk fairly soon after though and ran the Bombers into the ground, winning by a massive 78 points.
Patrick McGinnity had a stunner in his first game of the season for West Coast, finishing up with 4 goals. Josh Kennedy kicked 3 goals, but was relatively quiet, as was Jack Darling who kicked 2. I keep thinking Kennedy is going to have an absolute field day and bag 8 or 10 goals in a game. And I would have thought that a match against the Bombers at Domain Stadium would have been the perfect set up. Andrew Gaff was impressive against Essendon, finishing on 35 disposals and a handy 2 goals.
This week it will be a battle of the talls with Kangaroo Todd Goldstein shaping up against West Coast’s Scott Lycett. Goldstein is used to battling it out with Nic Naitanui, so I think he will assume that Lycett will be a little bit less of a challenge for him, still a challenge none the less. Lycett has been developing his skills from week to week in Naitanui’s absence. Josh Hill was automatically included back in the side this week after missing the last match with a bad case of tonsillitis.
Both teams like to move the ball around by foot, and less by handball, so I think we will see some quick transitions from one forward 50 to another. North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has decided not to risk Jarrad Waite (out with a hip injury) and Daniel Wells (out with a calf issue) which could put the Kangeroos under some additional pressure when moving the ball forward.
I think it is going to be a very good game to watch, and probably a close one! I am tipping West Coast Eagles to beat North Melbourne by 8 points.
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