It’s the second top of the table clash for the Dees in the space of three weeks.
Best Bet
The Dees showed they are in form with impressive back to back wins and should be able to handle a Cats side they have an excellent record against.
Melbourne has covered six of the last seven against the Cats and won the last three. This includes the famous Max Gawn goal after the siren to clinch the Minor Premiership as well as the Preliminary Final annihilation in Perth.
Speaking of Gawn, his likely return alongside Luke Jackson means the Dees are nearly back to full strength. They are still missing key forward Tom McDonald, but a smaller setup worked brilliantly against the Lions a fortnight ago.
Gawn and Jackson’s role will be crucial. Expect Mark Blicavs to spend some time in the ruck as Rhys Stanley was monstered by the Demons pair in last year’s games. Both of the Dees ruckmen will spend time forward as well to provide a second marking option alongside Ben Brown.
Crucially, the Dees have the personnel to match the Cats scoring weapons. Steven May will likely go to Tom Hawkins, Harrison Petty will get the important job on Jeremy Cameron, and the Cats will need to put a lot of work into Jake Lever who is back to his intercepting best.
This game should live up to the hype of first versus second, but Melbourne have had the measure of their intra state rival and should do so again.
Who will take home the AFL’s top individual award? Check out our weekly AFL Brownlow Predictor for this week’s leaderboard and our tips.
Same Game Multi
Both Dees ruckmen should see plenty of forward minutes and will get the favourable Jack Henry matchup when deep. Petracca is a dangerous forward both on the ground and in the air, spending more minutes deep should result in plenty of scoring opportunities.
Value Bet
The market hasn’t caught up to Christian Petracca’s change of role yet – he only attended 59% of centre bounces last week against the Crows, a season low. Happy to take the Dees superstar at $3.70 for a pair of snags and $11 for three.
