The Western Bulldogs will hope to keep the wins ticking over when they ‘host’ the Gold Coast Suns at Cazaly’s Stadium in Cairns on Saturday afternoon.
The Dogs managed to get back on the horse a bit last week though not in any kind of spectacular style with a stodgy, low-scoring win over Carlton. It was just their third win from their past nine games, a run of form that has seen them drop out of the top eight and likely out of the race for finals. They have an 8-8 record at the moment – that’s not bad, but they’re just not playing the kind of football to suggest they can launch into finals. Their percentage is problematically low and sitting in 11th they’d probably need to catch up two wins or so in the last six games, which is unlikely. That makes this game crucial – drop it and finals is almost certainly out of reach. Win it and they are alive, albeit just barely.
As for Gold Coast, their year is definitely over at this point, so it’s all about looking towards 2018 and getting in the best position possible. There’s two big calls they must make sooner or later on what to do with Rodney Eade and what to do with Gary Ablett. In the meantime though there’s still footy to be played. They are putting injured players on ice and giving kids a taste at this stage. That’s probably why they have Brayden Fiorini and Jesse Lonergan back in at this stage, and are debuting Jack Scrimshaw. Ablett as well as Steven May and Jarryd Lyons are all going to miss through injury.
The Dogs have one change – Easton Wood in, Jake Stringer to miss through injury.
The Bulldogs have a 3-0 record over the Suns at this ground and with no Ablett, that seems unlikely to change. $2 for the Dogs to win by 1-39 looks the likely outcome.
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