Former AFL Stars Predicting Pie Time

Posted on September 27, 2018 | Posted by David Shortte

Former Collingwood Star Mick McGuane and 1985 Brownlow Medallist Brad Hardie have both predicted the Magpies to prevail in the 2018 AFL Grand Final when interviewed on the Sports Daily on TABradio this week.

Despite siding with his former team Collingwood, McGuane was expecting a tight, hard-fought contest on Saturday.

“Both sides are coming off decisive Preliminary Final victories and that sets us up for a great Grand Final,” McGuane said.

McGuane believes the contrasting playing styles will make for a very intriguing affair.

“West Coast love to play the kick-mark game whereas Collingwood employ a more fast-paced chaos style,” he said.

“There are key matchups all over the ground and it will be fascinating to see who can emerge on the biggest stage of all.”

Former South Fremantle and Footscray champion Brad Hardie said this weekend’s Grand Final could come down to which back line gets their match ups right first.

“I’m looking at the match ups for McGovern, Barrass and Cole, where do they go?” he said.

“I wouldn’t trust McGovern on De Goey, so do they back in Schofield or Cole, or do they flirt with playing Jackson Nelson?”

Hardie said Collingwood faced similar issues at the other end of the ground and floated the idea of a late change to their line-up.

“You’ve got Howe in a lock down role on Darling or Kennedy, they also have Goldsack there too,” he said.

“Do they need to bring in Darcy Moore just in case?”

“There’s a bit of thinking to be done,” Hardie concluded.

West Coast assistant coach Jaymie Graham also joined Digby and Gareth on the Sports Daily and he said the ruck and midfield battle would prove critical to the outcome.

“It’s going to be a massive battle in there,” he said.

“Our rucks will have their hands full too.”

“They did a fantastic job on Gawn last week,” Graham concluded.

The final verdict from Mick McGuane was Collingwood by 13 points with Taylor Adams and Steele Sidebottom to be the key chances for the Norm Smith while Hardie opted for the Pies by a small margin with Adam Treloar his main fancy for Norm Smith honours.

The head to head market with TABtouch for the Grand Final sees Collingwood as the $1.70 favourites with West Coast a $2.25 outsider.

In Norm Smith Medal Betting Steele Sidebottom and Elliot Yeo head up betting at $8 in front of Adam Treloar and Jack Redden at $9, Brodie Grundy and Luke Shuey at $10, Scott Pendlebury at $11 and Taylor Adams and Josh Kennedy at $12.

Manager of Fixed Odds Betting at TABtouch Ben Pomatti is expecting plenty of local money to come for West Coast in the buildup to the game.

“West Coast have filled up the pockets of our local punters for a large portion of the season and it may prove the case again on Saturday,” Pomatti said.

“I am sure there will be plenty of home-town support for the Blue and Yellow in the lead up to the match,” Pomatti concluded.