It was upsets galore in Week 1 of the 2020 AFL Finals, which made it hard for punters to fill their pockets. We now move into the second week of the finals where there are two huge matches set to play out. Friday night will see Richmond take on St Kilda, while Saturday night features Geelong taking on Collingwood.
We’ll be bringing you our best AFL tips for each match of the 2020 AFL Finals, with thanks to the guys at Before You Bet.
Richmond Tigers vs St Kilda Saints
Friday 7:50pm, Metricon Stadium
The first of the two semi-finals will take place on Friday night with Richmond hosting St Kilda on the Gold Coast. The Tigers are hoping to win their way through to their fourth consecutive preliminary final, while the Saints are looking to continue their unlikely finals run. The winner of this clash will take on Port Adelaide in Adelaide next weekend and the losers are on holidays.
Richmond went in as the slight favourites against Brisbane last weekend but were rather disappointing if truth be told. They made a Richmond-like run late in the match but the hill was too steep to climb. In some positive news, star forward Tom Lynch is expected to return from injury for this pivotal match.
St Kilda looked home and hosed when they led the Western Bulldogs by four goals at three-quarter time last weekend, but boy oh boy did they get a scare when the Bulldogs got to within three points in the dying minutes. The Saints managed to hang on, but it certainly could’ve gone the other way.
The Tigers will start this match as the overwhelming favourites and for good reason considering their recent success. That said, the Saints were the comfortable winners when these sides met earlier this season, although it was all the way back in Round 4. We expect class and experience to get the better of the Saints this time around however, which makes the Tigers 1-39 look a really solid bet.
Prediction: Tigers 1-39 @$1.78
Geelong Cats vs Collingwood Magpies
Saturday 7:40pm, Gabba
The second semi-final this weekend is the Saturday night fixture between Geelong and Collingwood in Brisbane. The Cats will be desperate to avoid another straight-sets exit in the finals and the Magpies are looking to make it to their third straight preliminary final. The winner of this match will play Brisbane at the Gabba next weekend and the losers will be gearing up for a virtual Mad Monday.
Geelong put up a good fight away to Port Adelaide in their qualifying final, but they weren’t able to match it with the Power in their third quarter surge, which ended up being the difference. Tom Hawkins looked a shell of himself after a career-best regular season, managing just five points from six shots on goal.
Collingwood pulled off the upset of the round when they defeated West Coast in Perth last weekend. They got off to a flier thanks to big Mason Cox’s three first-quarter goals. The match turned into a real arm-wrestle in the second half, but the Magpies were able to hang on by a single point and progress through to the second week of finals.
No one quite knew what to expect from the Magpies in the finals and we’re still not entirely sure what they’ll dish up in Week 2. They’ve easily been the most inconsistent of the six remaining teams, which makes it very hard to trust them. On the other hand, we’re still confident the Cats have what it takes this year, and they certainly weren’t disgraced against the best team in the competition last weekend. We’re expecting the Cats to bounce back and win, while covering the very small spread (currently -5.5).
Prediction: Cats -5.5 @$1.87
