Gather Round in the AFL continues on Friday night with a juicy double-header! First up on the night is a battle between two winless teams in Brisbane and North Melbourne. They’ll be doing battle at Norwood Oval from 5:10pm (AEDT), and we have our full betting preview for the matchup below!
Also, Before You Bet will be providing free previews and betting tips for EVERY game in the 2024 AFL season, so make sure to head over to out our AFL Tips regularly to keep up to date with all of our free content.
2024 AFL Round 4 Preview & Betting Tips
Brisbane vs North Melbourne
Friday 5:10pm AEDT, April 5th, Norwood Oval
After coming devastatingly close to winning the premiership last season, many thought Brisbane would come out breathing fire in 2024, but in fact the exact opposite has transpired over the first three rounds. The Lions enter Gather Round at 0-3 having suffered losses to the Blues, Dockers, and most recently the Magpies.
Everyone has their own theory as to why the Lions have started so slowly. The stats tell us that it’s their efficiency going inside 50 that has hurt them the most, which is interesting because that’s been one of their biggest strengths for the best part of five years. The Lions have been less efficient compared to their opponent in all three games to date, and they managed to generate only 10 goals from 56 insides 50s against the Magpies last weekend.
In contrast, expectations were low for North Melbourne coming into 2024 and their 0-3 start is of no surprise to anyone. The rebuilding Kangaroos have showed glimpses of their promising future in all three outings to date, but have ultimately failed to remain consistently tough enough throughout each battle.
Clearly, the biggest flaw in this young North Melbourne outfit is their ability to defend. They’ve conceded 100+ points in all three matches to date including a whopping 137 points against the Blues on Good Friday. And unfortunately, there’s no quick fix to these issues as they’re already playing with their best options down back.
Match prediction: Although both of these clubs are winless, it’s no shock that the Lions are priced as the overwhelming favourites to secure the four points on Friday night. They’ve absolutely destroyed the Kangaroos in recent times, beating them 156-48 in their meeting in 2022, and 152-77 in their sole meeting last campaign.
We mentioned above that the Kangaroos can’t defend a parked car at the moment and that spells DANGER for this matchup with the Lions who boast a formidable forward line with a whole host of key forwards. And unless something drastic changes this week, I’m expecting another lopsided scoreline in favour of the Lions.
Brisbane -36.5
$1.90 (1 Unit)
Same Game Multi
The easiest way to place your Same Game Multi is to click on the BoomBet BetShare button below! This will add our SGM selections straight into your BoomBet bet slip! You can then enter how much you wish to wager and with one click, your bet has been placed!
Brisbane 25+ - Love the Lions here for the reasons mentioned above. Their key forwards should get a hold of the undersized and undermanned North defence.
Joe Daniher 4+ Goals – Will get a very favourable matchup here on either Pink or Corr. Neither have the size or ability to keep a guy of Daniher’s athleticism under wraps.
Dayne Zorko 20+ Disposals – Continues to find plenty of the ball despite being well into his 30s. 30 touches last start and will be around the pill all day again.
SGM Odds: $4 at BoomBet
