Bragging rights awarded to… The West Coast Eagles!
The West Coast Eagles come into this round after winning the 46th Western Derby at Domain Stadium by 30 points. They were too good for the Fremantle Dockers, keeping them goalless until the second quarter, with the skipper Shannon Hurn taking out the Ross Glendinning Medal after an epic game in defence. That will be the final derby held at Domain Stadium, with construction of the new Perth Stadium set to be completed by the start of the 2018 season.
Eagles Coach Adam Simpson has made a couple of changes to the squad this week to take on the Pies. Elliot Yeo, Tom Cole, Fraser McInnes and Malcolm Karpany come into the squad, while Chris Masten has been omitted and veteran Sam Mitchell is being rested. Some big milestones will be reached this week- Yeo will play his 100th game, Luke Shuey plays his 150th and Josh Kennedy has reached his 200th game. Congratulations to all of the milestone men! Kennedy kicked 3 goals last week, his first game back after an Achilles/calf injury, Andrew Gaff finished with an impressive 35 disposals and Dom Sheed finished with 27 disposals and a goal.
Collingwood have also made some adjustments to their team, with skipper Scott Pendlebury out with a finger injury. They have included Mason Cox, Levi Greenwood, Tom Phillips and Rupert Wills into their line-up to face the Eagles. The Pies have struggled at Etihad recently, losing six of their past seven games at the venue. With Pendlebury out, they will need to give it everything they’ve got this weekend if they want to give West Coast a run for their money.
After last week’s big home ground win I think the West Coast Eagles will be riding that momentum wave all the way to Etihad. Pendlebury is a big loss for the Pies and I think the Eagles will have too much firepower for Collingwood to withstand.
I am tipping the West Coast Eagles to beat the Magpies by 25 points!
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