North Melbourne face a mighty task when they host Adelaide at Blundstone Arena, and their chances of accomplishing it don’t look great.
Although they’ve played some great football in patches this year, the Roos clearly aren’t going to be one of this year’s top teams.
They won their first game of the year last week to move to a 1-5 record, defeating the Gold Coast Suns by 13 points.
Adelaide on the other hand are 6-0 at the top of the ladder and defeated one of their closer rivals, Richmond, by a whopping 76 points last weekend.
The contrast could hardly be more stark – the Crows are leading the race for the flag, North are battling to stay out of the basement.
This week the Roos have brought back Jarrad Waite and Ryan Clarke into their side, with Aaron Mullett injured and Jy Simpkin to be managed.
The Crows appear to have struck a balance they are happy with in their best side – they haven’t made a single change.
All in all it looks like a fairly straightforward affair with Adelaide set to win by a big margin – the only real card the Roos hold is the fact it is being played in Tasmania.
North have been able to stay in games against good sides up to a point this year but have inevitably had lapses that cost them and Adelaide will pile on the pain when this happens.
$1.15 for the Crows to win isn’t particularly good value however $1.92 for them to beat a -37.5 points line seems like a strong possibility.
Someone will need to kick the goals that take Adelaide to a big win and Eddie Betts looks the man, likely to pass the 500 goals career milestone this week.
$2.37 for him to kick four goals in the match seems like a strong possibility, even $3.75 for five seems a good chance.