Recent form of the Toasters

[Thunder Shaker]

Yes, they have won eight of their last nine games, but let's have a closer look at their form.

R.22 - beat Melbourne by 40 points at home.
R.21 - beat Fremantle by 48 points in an away game at Subi.
R.20 - beat Carlton by 62 points at home.
R.19 - beat Brisbane by 14 points at the Gabba.
R.18 - beat the Bulldogs at home by 49 points.
R.17 - lost to Port Adelaide at Football Park by 26 points.
R.16 - beat Essendon at home by 44 points.
R.15 - beat Hawthorn at York Park (Tasmania) by 4 points.
R.14 - beat Geelong at home by 2 points.

In the last 9 weeks, the Weagles have had some good form, but most of that good form has been at home. In the whole of the season (which I omit for brevity), the Eagles have beaten only one top-8 side away from home (Brisbane).

By comparison, we've also only beaten one top-8 side (Melbourne) away from home this year. Should we beat the Eagles, we would have a fair chance of beating the loser of Brisbane-St Kilda away from home, but after that we would play the winner of Port-Geelong and that may be too tough.

So are the Eagles that good? Not really - apart from Brisbane, their tally of wins away from Subi in the last 9 weeks is only one (Hawthorn). So on form it's likely that we can beat them this weekend.

[NMWBloods]

I agree - I noted that there only real win of note was against Brisbane. Still, their form is good and they will still take some beating. Their young players may struggle under finals pressure - we need to play a close checking game as they seem to like an open running game.

[tez]

Originally posted by NMWBloods
. - we need to play a close checking game as they seem to like an open running game.

I agree. We need to play them tight and deny them any
chance of getting into a running game. In our favour is
the fact they haven't played at Telstra Stadium and we
could get the jump on them, and I expect a big game
from Jason Ball just to finsih them off.

[Mike_B]

Telstra is not that dissimilar to Subi - a little shorter and a little narrower. I don't think this will be as big an advantage as some are making it out.

[ScottH]

Originally posted by Mike_B
Telstra is not that dissimilar to Subi - a little shorter and a little narrower. I don't think this will be as big an advantage as some are making it out.

But Telstra will have a more "feral" crowd than Subi, right!!!!

[Nico]

We lost to Geelong at their home ground in the last 5 minutes, where they have not lost a game.

On the MCG it becomes very much a mutual venue.