Gold Coast and Collingwood are both more or less out of the finals race, but Rodney Eade and Nathan Buckley are coaching for their careers when the two sides meet at Metricon Stadium on Sunday.
Gold Coast haven’t had that bad a year, really – it could certainly have been a lot worse. As things stand, they have six wins for the year, which is the same as they got last year, so they have seven matches left to improve on that total. They’ve won only one of their last four, a 19-point win over North Melbourne two weeks ago, but in fairness to them they’ve been missing Gary Ablett more often than not lately. Last week’s effort was very forgettable capitulation on the road against the Sydney Swans. There’s not a whole lot of shame in that though.
Collingwood have one win less than the Suns this year, but it’s fair to say the gap between what they’ve produced and what their supporters expect has been much larger. Whether it’s realistic or not, the club and it’s loyal army have had their sights set on finals for a while now, and once again in 2017 they have fallen woefully, hilariously short. They’ve got a 5-10 record and have lost their last three games in a row, to Port Adelaide, Hawthorn, and last week Essendon. Perhaps if they won all seven of their remaining games by sizeable margins they would be a slighty chance of scraping into finals – but very, very unlikely.
Both teams have some handy inclusions this week. Gold Coast are bringing back Ablett, as well as Pearce Hanley, Aaron Hall and Michael Rischitelli. Brayden Fiorini, Jesse Lonergan, Ryan Davis and Darcy Macpherson have all been dropped from the side.
Collingwood themselves have Jeremy Howe, Daniel Wells, Darcy Moore and Jarryd Blair coming into the side. They lose Levi Greenwood to suspension and have dropped Mason Cox, Josh Smith and Tim Broomhead.
Hard to pick a winner in what looks like a fairly even contest, but the Suns having the home ground advantage makes them look more likely – we’re on the Suns by 1-39 @ $2.40.
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