Collingwood have little left in this season other than the opportunity to play the role of the spoiler, as they did last week, and will look to do the same against Adelaide.
The Magpies disastrous form in the early part of the season has proven too much for them to overcome, but now that the pressure of making finals off they seem to be playing better footy.
They have now put on two wins in a row, albeit both in fairly close affairs. They defeated Gold Coast two weeks ago, and West Coast last time around.
The win over the Eagles in particular was impressive, coming back from a significant deficit late in the piece to record a memorable victory.
If they can continue to build momentum over these last four weeks, it will at least bode well for 2018.
Adelaide, on the other hand, have absolutely everything to play for – they’re on top of the ladder and arguably the premiership favourites.
A win against Geelong last week not only gave them a confidence boost that they can beat the very best, but also made the minor premiership exceedingly likely.
Their fixture to close out the year isn’t the easiest – after this game they’ve got Port Adelaide, Essendon, Sydney and West Coast, all sides either playing finals or in contention to.
But so long as they win at least three of their last five they should finish top and then have a clear path to the grand final via home advantage.
Collingwood have lost Travis Varcoe to injury for this one and dropped Jarryd Blair. They’ve brought back Matthew Scharenberg and Tom Phillips.
The Crows have two big stars in Eddie Betts and Brad Crouch both missing through injury. Paul Seedsman and Wayne Milera are in as replacements.
Really, the Crows should win this, and probably quite comfortably. $3.75 for them to win by 40+ points looks like very good value.
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