AFL Round 5 Tips & Preview

Gather Round kicks off on Thursday night with the Crows hosting the unbeaten Blues at Adelaide Oval.

With the Crows starting to get their act together, Matthew Nicks and his men are playing some bloody good footy at the moment and are making the Adelaide Oval their fortress with two big wins over Port and Freo over the past fortnight.

Carlton are getting the job done, find themselves second on the ladder, yet to lose a game but haven’t taken the footy world by storm – you don’t need to do that at this time of the year.

The Blues held off a plucky North Melbourne on Good Friday by 23-points, with thanks to the likes of big Charlie Curnow (6) and Harry McKay (4) booting 10 goals between them.

It’s worth noting that despite the Crows being down the bottom of the ladder for the past couple of years, their record at Adelaide Oval, especially against Carlton is impressive having beaten the Blues in their past six encounters at the venue.

All of Carlton’s wins this season has been by 25 points or less and with the Crows much improved, we could be in for another thriller to kick of this epic weekend of footy in the city of churches.

Take either team by 25 or less tri-bet option.

It doesn’t get more off-Broadway than Freo playing the Gold Coast Suns at Norwood Oval at 4pm on a Friday.

Who wins this is anyone’s guess?

Many pundits had high hopes for the Dockers heading into this season but Justin Longmuir and his men have been yet to impress.

The Suns still remain a bit of a mystery.

One week they’ve turned the corner, the next it’s a return to normal programming.

I’m not even going to touch any head-to-head markets in this one.

Let’s focus on some of the player markets and put together a same game multi.

Noah Anderson has been able to jag a sausage roll in five out of the past six games involving the Suns – we’ll put him down for anytime and Andy Brayshaw has managed to get more than 25+ disposals in the Dockers last seven hitouts.

That’s our same game multi. The rest of the game can sort itself out.

Write off Richmond.

Tiger time is over.

She’s been a wonderful era down at Punt Road but the Tigers are dropping off like flies, giving up leads and losing close matches are the norm.

Just about every non-Richmond supporter is writing off the Tiges, but Sydney are also coming off a heartbreaking loss to Port Adelaide and will be missing Lance Franklin.

Wherereas Richmond will be without the injured (but not suspended) Tom Lynch, along with captain Toby Nakervis.

This game could make or break the Tigers and Swans season.

When these two sides last met, Buddy saved the day in the Swans comeback (yet controversial) win, but the surroundings of Adelaide Oval will be surreal for these two sides.

I’m going to have to tip with my heart while there’s a whimper here folks.

Richmond had a similar amount of injuries and start to the season in their 2019 premiership year before heading to Adelaide Oval and recording a famous win over Port Adelaide.

It’s a different opponent and year but perhaps there’s some déjà vu in another Tiger upset.

I’m tipping the Tigers.

In surroundings even stranger than playing footy in China, we head to Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills for a pleasant afternoon as North Melbourne takes on Brisbane.

Brisbane was mighty impressive over the Pies on Easter Thursday and North can hold their heads up high after their 23-point loss to Carlton on Good Friday.

The Lions will go into this match as the clear $1.20 favourites and rightly so, if they can’t beat North in the Adelaide Hills then they truly are flat-track-bullies.

One of the more intriguing aspects of this match will be the fact that both Rising Star contenders Will Ashcroft and Harry Sheezel.

Only four games into their respective careers, these young guns have taken the footy world by storm.

I’ll keep this one interesting by putting them both in my Same Game Multi and hope these two superstars get plenty of the Sherrin on Saturday afternoon.

The first of the Saturday doubleheader at Adelaide Oval is easily the biggest game between 3rd placed Melbourne and 4th placed Essendon since the 2004 EF (the last time the Bombers won a final).

Since Brad Scott took over the top job at Bomberland, there seems to be a sense of purpose and discipline with the Dons who have been able to fend off opposition coming back at them.

It’s been great to see the likes of Jake “The Package” Stringer and Mason Redman up and about enjoying their footy right now.

Melbourne looks like they are just starting to ramp up another campaign for which the Dees will go deep into September.

They also don’t mind playing on the road having won 13 of their last 14 interstate and like it at Adelaide Oval.

The Demons should be simply too good for Essendon and they should be able to cover the -24.5 line in this one.

The Power heads into the match as $1.55 favourites against the Western Bulldogs ($2.45) at the time of publishing.

It was truly one of the great wins in Port’s AFL history over the Swans last week with a dramatic tap from Aliir Aliir to prevent Ollie Florent from kicking a winning goal after the siren, along with giving Power coach Ken Hinkley a week’s reprieve from calls for his head.

The Western Bulldogs managed to claw back the lead from a Tiger blitz in the second quarter to register a win and got the job done over Brisbane in the previous week, despite some writing them off.

You would think Port actually playing at home (unlike 16 other clubs this weekend) would give them an advantage, however, the Dogs have won their past three games as an underdog and are a pretty good value bet at the $2.45 on offer.

West Coast should consider themselves lucky they don’t have to play the Cats down at Kardinina Park this year, but even in the surroundings of Adelaide Oval – this could and will get ugly.

Despite trailing at half-time, the Cats found their mojo in the second half against Hawthorn last week led by big Jezza Cameron.

The Cats are $1.08 Winx-like favourites in the head-to-head market and with a line of -42.5 on offer.

Don’t even bother having a look at what the Eagles are at, and it’s highly unlikely they are a chance to cover the line.

Expect the big boys like the Tommhawk and Jezza to jag plenty of sausage rolls as the Cats belt the Eagles on Sunday arvo.

The Giants and Hawks grace the field of Norwood Oval – the home of the Redlegs in the SANFL on Sunday afternoon.

While the Hawks had a crack for the first half against Geelong on Easter Monday, they are very much a young side that can be blown away very quickly – eventually going down by 85-points.

GWS have been patchy at best so far this season, but haven’t been able to withstand teams who take it up to them in the later stages of a match.

You’d expect the Giants to win this, but can they play four solid quarters of footy?

While Hawthorn can be competive early, young sides like the Hawks will be subject to some serious beatings this season and Sunday at Norwood could be one of them as the Giants look to get back into form.

If anything, there’s shades of the Giants foundation seasons with this Hawthorn side, I’m expecting a pretty one-sided encounter in this one.

Have we saved the best of Gather Round till last?

The 9th and final game of this epic weekend of footy in SA has the top of the ladder and unbeaten Saints taking on 5th placed Collingwood on the rebound from an upset loss to the Brisbane Lions last week.

This game should be a beauty.

It’s been all sunshine and CC’s since Ross Lyon returned to Moorabbin and Pies coach Craig McRae remains the AFL’s answer to Ted Lasso

St Kilda is undefeated, and the likes of Jack Higgins is kicking 5 snags as they did it easy over the Gold Coast Suns last Saturday night.

You can’t help but love the former Tiger/lifelong Saints fan playing for the club he barracked for as a child.

“Snags”has already kicked 10 goals this season – 5 last week vs the Suns and 4 the week previous and is up and about.

Both teams like scoring this year, so I don’t mind taking the over of 161.5 points and Jack Higgins to kick a couple of snags in my Same Game Multi.

Here’s hoping for a cracking contest to finish an epic weekend.