THE ROAR'S AFL EXPERT TIPS AND PREDICTIONS: ROUND 5
0The Roar's AFL expert tips and predictions: Round 5
Some tipping weeks are harder than others. If I’m being brutally honest. though. my five last week – borne of excess faith in the Bulldogs. not enough in Geelong and not anticipating Carlton’s juggernaut falling apart the moment Patrick Cripps reached for his hamstring – is starting to look pretty good when I look at what some of our other tipsters here on The Roar got up to. Whether it was backing Adelaide to upset the Bombers. or a sneaky feeling Port could do a number on Melbourne. or picking against YOUR OWN TEAM AT HOME against GWS. we all had a horror story or two to come out of Round 4. But as they say. when you’re going through hell. keep going. And full credit to Dem. who used the week to back a slew of 50 50s right and surge back into the race. When you tip West Coast to knock over Collingwood on the road. you deserve every bit of it. Is Round 5 going to be any easier to tip? Will I still contrive to make a complete hash of it? Let’s answer both those questions at the same time and get into it! Tim Miller (last week: 5) Brisbane. Western Bulldogs. Sydney. St Kilda. Richmond. Melbourne. Carlton. Essendon. Geelong It’s neck in neck at the top between me and you guys in The Crowd this week. so to maintain any sense of credibility I’ve got to make a decent fist of a relatively straightforward round of footy. Kicking us off on Friday night. any Collingwood outfit with Jordan De Goey and Taylor Adams back in it will put up more of a fight than they managed against the Eagles; but Brisbane just don’t lose home and away matches at the Gabba these days and I can’t see it happening here. The Good Friday double header are also very risky ones to go against the grain: as poor as the Bulldogs have been to start the year. it’s been four years since North Melbourne’s one and only win in their marquee fixture. Like the Roos. the Eagles were outstanding last week (though unlike the Roos. they were rewarded for their effort with a win) – but a Sydney side that usually travels well and is a bona fide finals contender would kick themselves for slipping up on their trip west. The Docklands factor should get a resurgent St Kilda over the line against the improving Gold Coast in a genuine match of the round contender; as a side note. it’s great to see no Saturday afternoon overlap in games this week – long may it continue! Richmond are also coming off a big win. and the hostile away crowd factor should present no fears to the triple premiership Tigers. Rounding us off on Saturday night. Melbourne will lose a game at some point this season. but with GWS still a week away from regaining Toby Greene. it probably won’t be at the hands of the Giants. Sunday’s games are the two genuine flip of the coiners for the round. A Carlton outfit (probably) without Patrick Cripps is the kind of wounded opposition that looms very nicely for a Port Adelaide side in desperate need of a kill. The Power have a great recent record over the Blues. and I’d genuinely tip them if Ollie Wines was playing; but I’m too much of a coward to jump off the Carlton bandwagon now. Up next. I think the Bombers are better than their current record and Fremantle are worse than theirs. which should see them meet somewhere in the middle in the later Sunday game. I’ve gone the Bombers for the home ground factor. where the Dockers haven’t beaten them since 2010 (disclaimer: they’ve only played them there five times in that period). But Freo are probably only one win in a game like this away from being taken really seriously as finals contenders – or even more. Finally. the traditional Easter Monday game to round off the week. You rarely get far in tipping competitions by backing against Geelong. and with Hawthorn crashing back to earth last week. you’d be a brave human to go against the Cats here. Dem Panopoulos (last week: 6) Brisbane. Western Bulldogs. Sydney. Gold Coast. Richmond. Melbourne. Port Adelaide. Fremantle. Geelong Thank...
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