The finals begin at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday night as the Power host the Cats. The winner earns a week off and a home Preliminary Final.
Best Bet
The Power finished the regular season in scintillating form and are entitled to be strong favourites against the flaky Cats.
Port Adelaide’s midfield unit has simply dominated games of late, with over the likes of Carlton, Sydney, Fremantle and Adelaide driven by a midfield unit long on class and depth.
The Cats loss to the Saints a fortnight ago is a warning of what can happen when they get dominated out of the midfield and their lack of class in the middle outside of the aging Patrick Dangerfield has been badly exposed at times this season.
Port Adelaide’s Round 9 win over the Cats at Kardinia Park was a prime example of this, as Zac Butters, Ollie Wines and Willem Drew got on top out of the middle and the Power got out to a huge lead.
Much will be made of the Power’s poor finals record under Ken Hinkley but they have hosted the Cats in Week 1 finals twice this decade and won both comfortably.
Expect the same again.
INSIGHTS
Geelong in Finals 🌍: Geelong has lost nine of its last ten finals away matches.
🏅 Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval: Port Adelaide has won their last 4 games at Adelaide Oval, including 3 by 40+ points. 🏟️
🆚 Geelong Cats vs Port Adelaide: Recent matchups between Geelong Cats and Port Adelaide have been high-scoring, with all of the last 4 games going over the total points line. 🏉
Same Game Multi
The Power’s prime movers in the middle should have big games in the middle, both Zac Butters and Ollie Wines had 30 the last two times these sides met.
With Dan Houston and Kane Farrell out, Logan Evans and Ryan Burton should assume much of the ball handling duties including kick ins for the Power.
Value Bet
Logan Evans took eight kick ins against the Dockers in Round 24, and had 23 disposals for the game – every one of them a kick. It’s not hard to envisage the mid season draft pick having an even bigger haul here.
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