The AFL has saved the best for last this week with the match of the round, Adelaide and Richmond, to close out the week on Sunday afternoon.
Two undefeated teams will enter Adelaide Oval and barring an unlikely draw, one of them will leave having suffered their first loss of the season.
Adelaide’s tale of the tape is mightily impressive – they’ve knocked off some great teams, including the pre-season premiership favourites GWS, on their way to a 5-0 start.
Their ability to put points on the board is just second to none at the moment, they’re winning matches by an average margin of a little over 45 points.
Richmond on the other hand may not have taken any big scalps but they’ve had a great start to the year none the less and shown real heart.
Their efforts to get wins in tight situations against West Coast and Melbourne have shown they’re more than just lucky this year.
Their shift towards play aggressive, offensive, fast-paced footy has brought about a remarkable change in fortunes and allowed their superstar talent to shine.
The Crows have Josh Jenkins back in the side this week and have recalled Jake Kelly as well – Riley Knight will miss with a hamstring and Troy Menzel has been dropped.
Richmond have brought in Nick Vlastuin and Steven Morris, with Todd Elton and Connor Menadue the players dropped to make way.
Both sides have a top layer of star players as good as any team in the league – Dustin Martin vs Rory Sloane, Taylor Walker vs Alex Rance and Jack Riewoldt vs Daniel Talia are all mouth-watering match-ups.
However Adelaide look to have the better rounded team in terms of a depth of talent throughout the squad, and also the home ground advantage.
They should win this one.
$1.16 for them to win isn’t great value, but $2.50 for the Crows to win by 1-39 points seems like a likely result.