Essendon and Collingwood will once again do battle in what has become the AFL’s biggest non-finals fixture of the year, ANZAC Day.
Both sides enter this match with a little something to prove – they’d both be seeing themselves as potential finalists this year but neither is quite at that pace.
Essendon opened the year with a great win over Hawthorn and then backed it up the next week against Brisbane.
However a shock loss to Carlton in Round 3 would’ve really disappointed them and then, as most teams will be this year, they were blow away by Adelaide.
Collingwood on the other hand have only one win to show from their four matches so far, and that win came by only a single point.
Their forward line has proven to be their main problem – they can compete with the best in the midfield but aren’t getting reward for effort on the scoreboard.
Darcy Moore, who has kicked only a single game for the year, has gotten a lot of attention during the week with questions over his form.
The Pies have brought in Mason Cox and dumped Jesse White this week and they’ll be hoping Moore and Cox can click.
They’re also debuting Daniel Wells and have recalled Tom Phillips, with Josh Smith and Jarryd Blair the others to miss.
Essendon will debut rookie Ben McNiece and have recalled Aaron Francis, with Conor McKenna suspended and Kyle Langford dropped.
Collingwood’s midfield arguably has Essendon’s beat for star power, if not necessarily depth, but the Bombers have much greater maturity at both ends of the ground.
That being the case it’s a little surprising that Essendon are out to $2.15 for the win – they look like really great value there.
It’ll be interesting to see if Moore can make a response to questions over his place in the team – he’s $4.33 to kick three goals if you think he can.