This week's round has Sydney having the bye, along with Brisbane, Essendon and West Coast.
First up is Fremantle vs Geelong. Geelong beat Fremantle at home in round 1. Geelong is one of only three teams to beat Fremantle the last time they played, the other teams being Gold Coast (by 1 point in a final last year) and Sydney (also last year). If Fremantle lose, they can still hold top spot by percentage if the game is close or the game is high scoring. Otherwise they would drop to second. I think Fremantle will win this, but only because they are a very good team this year.
Gold Coast play Hawthorn at Carrara. Hawthorn last beat Gold Coast at Carrara in 2014 and Hawthorn's not won many games in Queensland in the last 10 years (most recent was in 2016).
Adelaide plays Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval. Melbourne have not won any games outside Victoria this year and Adelaide's recent form has been solid.
GWS vs Carlton promises to be an interesting game because it's evenly matched. Carlton have won four games since Voss resigned as coach. Hard to say how this one will go, but Carlton's been performing to their potential in the last month.
Collingwood and Port Adelaide has two Magpie teams with poor records in close games this year. This could be a draw.
Richmond and North Melbourne could be interesting as well. They might play some rubbish football, but it could be entertaining if it's close.
Final game is St Kilda vs Bulldogs. St Kilda plays the Sunday purgatory time slot so often that they almost own it.
Overall this could be an entertaining round with several evenly-matched contests. Of course, one game of the "close" ones could blow out to a 75-point margin.
First up is Fremantle vs Geelong. Geelong beat Fremantle at home in round 1. Geelong is one of only three teams to beat Fremantle the last time they played, the other teams being Gold Coast (by 1 point in a final last year) and Sydney (also last year). If Fremantle lose, they can still hold top spot by percentage if the game is close or the game is high scoring. Otherwise they would drop to second. I think Fremantle will win this, but only because they are a very good team this year.
Gold Coast play Hawthorn at Carrara. Hawthorn last beat Gold Coast at Carrara in 2014 and Hawthorn's not won many games in Queensland in the last 10 years (most recent was in 2016).
Adelaide plays Melbourne at the Adelaide Oval. Melbourne have not won any games outside Victoria this year and Adelaide's recent form has been solid.
GWS vs Carlton promises to be an interesting game because it's evenly matched. Carlton have won four games since Voss resigned as coach. Hard to say how this one will go, but Carlton's been performing to their potential in the last month.
Collingwood and Port Adelaide has two Magpie teams with poor records in close games this year. This could be a draw.
Richmond and North Melbourne could be interesting as well. They might play some rubbish football, but it could be entertaining if it's close.
Final game is St Kilda vs Bulldogs. St Kilda plays the Sunday purgatory time slot so often that they almost own it.
Overall this could be an entertaining round with several evenly-matched contests. Of course, one game of the "close" ones could blow out to a 75-point margin.

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