Last year’s grand finalists meet again on Friday night with the winner earning a preliminary final berth and the all-important week off. Geelong won their last three games of the home-and-away season against the Western Bulldogs (101 points), Carlton (42) and West Coast (44) while St Kilda’s three-match winning streak came to an end when they suffered a 28-point loss to Adelaide last Saturday.
The last time these two sides met in round 13 the Saints held the Cats goalless in the second half to beat Mark Thompson’s men by 24 points. On that night the reigning premiers were without Paul Chapman, James Kelly, Joel Corey, Brad Ottens and Tom Hawkins – all of whom will play this time around. St Kilda will have two quality players in their side that didn’t play in the corresponding clash between these two teams in skipper Nick Riewoldt and Jason Gram but Geelong has greater depth in the class department which should prove to be the difference.
The smart money is on a Cats’ win by 1-24, which is paying $3.25.