Round 2 of the2019 AFL season continues on Friday night with an intriguing encounter that sees the Swans host the Crows at the SCG. Both teams are coming off a disappointing round one loss, meaning this should be a hotly fought contest between two teams desperately trying to avoid starting off 0-2 on the year. Below, we’ve provided a comprehensive preview of the blockbuster clash, as well as our usual best bet for the game. As always, good luck to everyone following!
We’ve had a great start to the season with our footy tips bringing about great return on investment for our followers. Here, we’re focusing purely on the Friday night game between the Swans and the Crows, but if you’re after previews and tips for the rest of the Round 2 action, make sure you head to our AFL Tips Page.
AFL Round 2 Richmond vs Collingwood Betting Tips
Friday 29thof March, 7:20pm AEDT, SCG
We’ve got an intruiging Friday night match on our hands in Round 2 with the Sydney Swans hosting the Adelaide Crows at the SCG. Both clubs are expecting to improve on what were largely disappointing 2018 campaigns, although they both got off to rocky starts this season with Round 1 losses.
Sydney Swans
The Swans didn’t start the season the way they would’ve hoped, going down to the Dogs at Marvel Stadium in Round 1. They came out of the blocks extremely sluggish and found themselves down by as many as 40 points early in the third term, but were able to rally back to within four points midway through the fourth quarter after a flurry of goals. However, they ran out of gas and eventually went down by 17 points. Jake Lloyd was the best Swan on the night with 35 touches and 10 marks, while Buddy Franklin was quiet with just seven touches and a goal.
The good news from the Swans opening match was there were no real injury scares other than a couple of niggles, and they now get to return home to Sydney and play in front of their home fans in a Friday night fixture. It’ll be interesting to see the changes (if any) that John Longmire makes for Round 2, but we aren’t expecting too much of an overreaction after one loss from such an experienced and successful coach.
Adelaide Crows
Much like the Swans, the Crows were very disappointing in their first match of the new season. Like many, we expected a much stronger and determined Crows outfit to show up in Round 1, but it just seemed like the same team we saw that missed the finals in 2018. The Crows were competitive enough in the first half to trail by nine points at the main break, but after half time they were outclassed and outplayed by the Hawks and eventually went down by 32 points. Matt Crouch (40 disposals) and Rory Sloane (36) found plenty of the ball in midfield, but Eddie Betts (two goals) and Taylor Walker (one behind) didn’t provide their usual spark up forward.
Another dark cloud over their Round 1 loss was the injury to young star backman Tom Doedee, who looks set to miss the entire season with an ACL tear he suffered just before half time. Richard Douglas also pulled up sore from an ankle sprain and will likely spend some time on the sidelines.
Unlike the Swans, we do expect Don Pyke to shake things up at least a little bit ahead of their trip to Sydney. Injuries to two key players in Douglas and Doedee force his hand in a way, as does the minimal impact that his forward line (combined for two goals) had on their Round 1 match.
History
2018 Round 5 – Sydney (10.15.75) lost to Adelaide(12.13.85)
2017 Round 22 – Adelaide (11.14.80) lost to Sydney(13.5.83)
2016 Semi-final – Sydney(18.10.100) dftd Adelaide (12.10.82)
2016 Round 4 – Adelaide(16.17.113) dftd Sydney (15.13.103)
2015 Round 18 – Sydney(17.15.117) dftd Adelaide (9.11.65)
Prediction
All things considered; this is an extremely tough match-up to predict in terms of the head-to-head markets. Both the Crows and the Swans had forgettable Round 1 performances that provided more questions than answers. If we were to make a play on this one, we’d slightly lean towards the Swans at home, but we aren’t confident enough in that to recommend a play on that market. Instead, we’ve looked for value elsewhere and believe we’ve found some in the total points line.
A lot of ‘experts’ predicted a play on the over the total points market was the way to go in Round 1 due to a few tweaks in the rules. However, just about every game ended up going unders, with plenty of extremely low scores. The line for this match has opened at 164.5, which we believe is at least 10-15 points too high when you consider the struggles both the Crows and the Swans had with scoring in Round 1. The two teams combined for 120 points in the opening round and had minimal scoreboard impact from their key players. Further, the last two meetings between these teams have gone under the 164.5 mark, and 12 of Adelaide’s last 13 Friday night matches have also hit the unders. Simply put, we expect a low scoring and very contested battle on Friday night with a total score around the 140-150 mark.
Under 164.5 Total Points
$1.90
