« Lady Luck | Main | The Money Game »
March 09, 2007
NAB Cup Semi Final
Geelong v Brisbane
Telstra Dome
Friday 7:40pm
Squads:
Geelong: King, Bartel, Mackie, Varcoe, J.Hunt, Kelly, Corey, Gardiner, Byrnes, Djerrkura, Egan, Mooney, Playfair, N.Ablett, Blake, D.Johnson, G.Ablett, Scarlett, Prismall, Grima, Reynolds, S.Hunt, Milburn, Wojcinski, Enright, Ling, Davenport, Chapman.
Brisbane: Johnson, Fixter, Harding, Power, Adcock, Notting, McGrath, Moody, Sherman, Hawksley, Schmidt, Tyler, Brennan, Charman, Black, Merrett, Patfull, Mills, Roe, Copeland, Wood, Stiller, Rischitelli, Hamill, Clouston, Allan, B.McDonald, Begley.
Geelong's somewhat fortunate win in Darwin last week has prompted punters to propel the Cats into NAB Cup favouritism ahead of its semi final against Brisbane this weekend. Prominent in their thinking, no doubt, would be reports that Brisbane will treat the semi final against the Cats as a practice match and would not play several key players.
That Leigh Matthews claim has yet only proved to be partly true. While Daniel Bradshaw, Jonathan Brown and Nigel Lappin will all watch from the sidelines, Brisbane's premiership stars including Luke Power, Simon Black and Chris Johnson will make the journey to the Telstra Dome.
Geelong had originally planned to take the opportunity to bring back several of its stars after resting them in last week's win over Port Adelaide. But while Steven King and David Wojcinski look certain to play, Brad Ottens will be given another week off and captain Tom Harley won't play due to a leg injury. Aside from those omissions, only Paul Chapman (returning through VFL) and Max Rooke will be missing from the Cats' best 22.
Despite the apparent advantage Geelong appears to enjoy in the seriousness stakes, they would be wise not to take Brisbane too lightly. The Lions have enjoyed two impressive wins travelling in the first two rounds of the NAB Cup and will be full of confidence despite their comparatively inexperienced line-up.
Geelong on the other hand, while widely tipped to dispatch with Brisbane to gain itself a berth in the NAB Cup Grand Final, could easily have gone down to Port and demonstrated only a solid performance against a Richmond outfit which has been unimpressive in subsequent matches. Geelong could well be feeling the pinch after playing in horrendous conditions last week.
The inherent nature of the NAB Cup throws up unpredictable results with familiar regularity. For that reason alone, I won't venture to punt any of my hard earned on this match, especially with the short odds that are on offer for the Cats. On form and feeling, I can't go past the Cats, but I wouldn't be surprised nor altogether disappointed, if the Lions jumped the Cats unexpectedly. Geelong by 10 points.
Posted by catempire at March 9, 2007 08:39 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://geelongblog.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/15