AFL Semi-Final Predictions 2021
With the first week of finals all done and dusted, it’s time to look forward to the rest of the Finals series. And what a couple of mouth-watering clashes we have in store. Who will meet Melbourne and Port Adelaide in the prelim finals? Let’s find out. For the sake of this prediction article, we’ll compare every position against the opposition’s opposite position (Example- Defence vs Forward line). Drop a fan and follow for more.
Geelong vs GWS:
I think this should be a very interesting clash indeed. We have one side in Geelong who are coming off a loss last week and another side (GWS) who are in great form and look fairly dangerous. Most of the attention in the media throughout the week was surrounding the Toby Greene suspension. The question is: Can GWS cover the loss of Toby Greene. Well let’s have a look at their forward line now. They have an in form Jesse Hogan and Harry Himmelberg with guys like Bobby Hill and Zach Sproule around them. Whilst they are undermanned, Geelong’s defence is also undermanned with the best defender in the league out injured (Tom Stewart). Overall, even without Stewart, I think Lachie Henderson, Jack Henry and Jed Bews should be able to stop the GWS forward line. Therefore, I’m going to go with Geelong here. Switching to the other side of the field, Geelong’s forward line has to be the best in the competition. They have the big duo of Hawkins, Cameron against his old side with Gary Rohan playing as a hybrid forward and guys like Dangerfield and Miers moving up to kick goals. Simply put, I don’t think that GWS’ defence, as great as it is with Davis, Cumming, Taylor, Haynes, Idun and Whitfield running off half back is good enough to stop Geelong’s forwards. In the middle of the ground, we have 2 amazing midfields going at it. On one side we have guys like Josh Kelly, Tim Taranto, Callan Ward, Jacob Hopper and Mumford in the ruck going against Stanley, Guthrie, Menegola, Dangerfield, Selwood and Duncan. While I think GWS will get more clearances, I think Geelong’s overall polish and experience will prevail. Hence, I think Geelong should get the job done reasonably comfortably.
Geelong by 21 points
Brisbane vs Western Bulldogs:
This game is the better of the 2 for me. On one hand, we have a side that managed to sneak into top 4 by the barest of margins up against a team that would have topped the ladder if not for some poor form late in the year. Based off form alone, I think Brisbane probably have to be given a slight edge even though they lost last week and the Bulldogs won since the Bulldogs lost their last 3 games of the season. Starting with the Bulldogs forward line against the Lions backline, it’ll be Naughton and Schache with Weightman and Vandermeer picking up the crumbs against Andrews, Adams, Gardiner, Starcevich, Rich and Birchall. Despite Weightman having a great game last week, I don’t think the Bulldogs are good enough to beat such a good defence. So, the Lions get the edge here. In the Lions’ forward line, Daniher, Fullarton, Cameron, McCarthy, Coleman and Bailey will have to be at their mercurial best against the terrific defence that is the Bulldogs’ defence. The balance the Doggies have with bigs and smalls with Keath, Gardner, Wood, Williams, Duryea, All Australian Dale and Daniel should end up outweighing the Lions I believe. In saying this, it’s a high probability that this prediction blows up in my face since the Lions’ forward line can perform in a big way when it gets firing. In the middle of the ground, we probably have the 2 best midfields in the game if we don’t include ruckmen. For the Lions, we have last year’s Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale, Jarryd Lyons, Dayne Zorko, Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry who combined create a really well-rounded midfield of inside players with the ability to get clearances as well as outside players who can get the ball forward. On the other hand, the Doggies have the likes of Bontempelli, Macrae, Dunkley, Treloar, Hunter, Smith and Liberatore which is an absolute dream of a midfield. It has everything the Lions’ midfield has plus a bit more polish and pace. For this reason, I’m going to go with the Doggies here although I do think the better team here will win the game. Therefore, overall, I think the Doggies are the slightly better team and I think they’ll get the win here against a hostile Lions’ crowd. I just don’t thin the Lions have looked too impressive all year in all honesty and I think this will come to the forefront again against the Dogs.
Bulldogs by 7
