AFL Football Round 5 – Friday Night @ The Dome
In a week that Barry Hall and the Sydney Swans would rather forget, all the focus now shifts to the real stuff again. AFL Football Round 5 action this week kicks off with the match between Essendon and St Kilda at the Telstra Dome.
The Saints have been out of sorts since their NAB Cup Win during the pre season and would be extremely disappointed with their performances and the Bombers, well they have been hit hard with injuries to key members of their line up and will be certainly be up against it for a few week until their return. Essendon have a string of Hamstring injuries including Mark McVeigh, Sam Lonergan, Courtenay Dempsey, Leroy Jetta and David Myers. Add to that Scott Lucas and Matthew Lloyd (who may return this week) and the Bombers are going to have to call on some youngsters to fill the voids. Andrew Welsh would come in you would think. The likes of Kyle Reimers and Tayte Pears are going to get a lot more game time and it will be interesting to see if they are up to the task.
Down at Moorabbin The Saints have been struggling in the past couple of weeks, they just can’t seem to get a functional forward line with the 3 big guns, Fraser Gehrig, Justin Koschitzke and Nick Reiwoldt, unable to work together. The Saints have been outstanding in winning the stoppages and last week smashed The Cats in that area 39 / 23. Lenny Hayes was the catalist with 10 clearances alone. They just can’t seem to convert in the forward 50 and utilize this dominance. Their mid fielders got plenty of the ball last week Lenny Hayes (32 possessions), Luke Ball (27) and Leigh Montagna (35) and the Bombers will need to shut them down if they are any chance. Interestingly enough the Bombers may just have the cattle to cover the Big Forwards with Fletcher, Michael and Ryder.
The Bombers aren’t without a chance in this one if their running game can come together. The Saints lack a bit of pace through the middle and if the Bomber defenders can cover the big men and Jason Gram’s run can be negated then they are in with a real show. You can’t really expect Lloyd, if he plays, to come out and kick a bag and I think with the amount of injuries the Bombers have to key players, especially Mark McVeigh the Saints should get over the line. Saints by 29 points.
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Saints would be better to drop Gerigh and bring in C Gardiner. Problem with Saints midfield is that they are slow and do not kick goals unlike Geelongs and others..