AFL Tips: Gold Coast v Richmond

Saturday, August 2 – 4.10 PM AEST – Venue: People First Stadium

Gold Coast bounced back with a strong win over Brisbane after being soft the week before in their loss to Freo, where they went goalless in the first half, which was embarrassing. Hardwick obviously sat them down within 24 hours and given them the facts – if you want to play finals you have to bring the pressure every week, which is what they did last week, and I expect them to keep that momentum for the rest of the year.

The Tigers were solid last week against the Pies, and they beat the Suns in Round 6 at Marvel this year. They have a solid defence led by Nick Vlastuin and now that Noah Balta is available every week they have strength to take on the talls like King this week.  

Matt Rowell had a career high 37 disposals and 730 metres gained last week, and his captain Noah Anderson is in great form too. The Suns will welcome back Touk Miller from a hamstring injury and should bring Jed Walter in after he kicked two gaols in the reserves, which will give them the three talls in the forward line they will need to have in place to win finals. Will Graham is available but will likely play in the reserves to build match fitness as he has been out with a shoulder injury for 12 weeks.

The Suns forward line functioned well last week, as they kicked 5 goals in each quarter. They had plenty of options with Long kicking four goals and Farrar, Humphrey and Ainsworth kicking three goals each. Holman brought the pressure with his excellent tackling and harassing of the Lions defenders. Hardwick rates Witts as an all Australian ruckman and the big man is in career best form, both in the centre bounce and around the ground.

Gold Coast are playing for a top 4 position and home finals, so they will keep the foot on the pedal until the final siren. Gold Coast by 45 points