AFL TIPS: Geelong v Essendon

Friday, August 8 – 7.40 PM AEST – Venue: GMHBA Stadium

The Cats have a key finals spot to play for and will dominate the Bombers on Friday night on their home deck. Cameron after his haul of 11 goals and six goals in the last two weeks, will be keen to get another bag against the undermanned Bombers defence, as he strives to get 100 goals for the season.

Shannon Neale and Tyson Stengle will be potent up forward, and Jack Martin could get a bagful of goals too. The Cats are fourth but will be looking to win their final three games to get them into the top two, so they don’t have to play interstate during the finals.

Disappointingly the Bombers can’t even do the basics well, like tackling! They miss more tackles than any other side has done in league history, although they were much tougher around the contest last week against Sydney and won the tackle count 50 to 44.  Ridley is out with a hamstring again and it could give first year forward/ruck Kayle Gerreyn an opportunity to come in as he has been in good form in defence in the VFL. Vigo Visentini played well in the VFL and should come back in rather than playing Todd Goldstein.

Bailey Smith is in career best form racking up stats, as are Holmes, Miers and Atkins. They will give their forwards plenty of opportunity to kick a winning score. The Cats are in the fortunate position to have almost a full list of players to pick from with Mitch Duncan, Cam Guthrie, Jake Kolodjashnij and Oli Wiltshire all available for selection this week. 

Geelong by 78 points