Impress your friends..

While Etihad Stadium is our home deck and we love it, there’s nothing like playing at the mighty MCG, which incidentally has been a happy hunting ground for the Dogs in recent times. 

Four games for four wins last season is some decent front bar material ahead of the game. 

Need more?  How about this: A win tonight would be the first time in 71 years that we’ve beaten the Pies five straight times. Or, that the last Magpie win was powered by five goals from big Clokey.

So what do all of these juicy numbers mean once the ball is bounced ?  Absolutely nothing, but still.  Use them while you can.

 

Less is Moore?

Young Magpie forward Darcy Moore has played three matches for premiership points over his young career and is averaging three and a half goals per contest.  A reasonable return for a bloke born in 1996.

According to Champion Data Fletcher Roberts, Joel Hamling and Marcus Adams spent the most time on the young spearhead during out Round 10 and Round 21 clashes last year.  But with Luke Beveridge’s focus on team defence ahead of one-on-one match-ups, this may not be an accurate reflection on how the Dogs attempt to curtail the young Moore.

Either way, though the Pies are talented all through their lines, Moore is capable of getting off the leash, so preventing that from happening will be welcome contribution to the Bulldogs cause.

 

Middle men

All of that said, the big boys and each end can’t do much without their mids getting their hands on the pill and sending it forward, so the battle in the middle of the ground will be key tonight.

Champion Data declared over the offseason that Collingwood had the number one midfield brigade in the competition and it’s easy to see why.  The Magpies boast six players ranked elite or above average according to the stats gurus, led by prime movers Scott Pendlebury and Adam Treloar.

The Dogs on the other hand landed in third spot, with three players ranked as elite, more than any other club.  One of those players, Mitch Wallis, won’t be playing tonight (Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Dahlhaus are the other two), but you can sure the Bulldogs midfield brigade will conced no ground to their Magpie counterparts.

 

Friday night lights

This one is pretty obvious isn’t it?  MCG, Friday night, Round One and footy is officially back.

There’s not much else to say here other than: is it 7:50 yet?