[AFL-Preview] NAB Cup Grand Final

NAB Cup Grand Final

Hello readers and AFL lovers (assuming you are not one and the same). We have reached the start of the 2011 season and tonight is the final of the NAB cup. It has been the practice of this establishment to totally ignore the NAB cup and for good reason. Winners of this prestigious award don't usually do so well during the normal season and let's use Carlton as the prime example.

In this case, we have two combatants that are traditional rivals, one team being the ultimate football machine of 2010, Collingwood, while the other team, Essendon, has not had the best of times of late. The make- up of the teams is usually interesting in NAB cup matches as coaches give their new players a taste of the big time, they experiment with plays and generally try to keep a low profile about what they expect as the result.
The Magpies have started the season strongly, have recruited well and find themselves in the unusual position of playing in an NAB cup final. Essendon has had a change of coaches after the tawdry dismissal of Matty Knights at season's end in 2010. But oh, what a change there has been in their playing fortunes with the recruitment of favourite sons James Hird and the stressed out and tired Mark Thompson from Geelong. When we chat about the footy while parked around the water cooler most of us would say that sacking the coach never fixes the problem when you have average players. And in most cases that is true but it seems that the arrival of Hird and Bomber Thompson has lifted the performance of Essendon players to a level not seen in recent years under Matthew Knights. While it's true that coaches place little credibility on the NAB cup game results it is also true that those in charge of the finances at the AFL clubs don't mind an additional few hundred thousand dollars being banked pre-season. So to the game.

It will be a sell out because there are 60,000 Magpie members and 40,000 Essendon members. Essendon members and supporters will be there to see a new, invigorated and challenging team for 2011 and the Magpie members and supporters will be there just to watch the Pies thrash the Bombers as usual. A repeat of the 1990 Grand Final is on the cards.

The Collingwood interchange bench which includes Davis, Blair, Sidebottom, Beams and Johnson is good enough to be picked in any team as their star players. Didak returns from holidays and for the Bombers Hille returns after that knee injury early last year. Dustin Fletcher has asked that his pension card be put on hold another year and he will line up against Travis Cloke and although that might be a good tussle the sheer weight of numbers of Collingwood players coming forward will swamp the Bomber backs. Missing for the Pies will be their captain Maxwell who was cleaned up by an Eagles player in Perth last weekend, possibly the only positive that West Coast can take from that game. Magpie fans will be watching new recruit Andrew Krakaouer with great interest and it is hoped he will fit into this premiership team beautifully.

First quarter will be hectic, fast paced and expect the Pies to be seriously challenged. Collingwood to draw away in the second quarter. The Bombers have really played above themselves in this pre-season competition and the pressure and sustained effort might start to tell in the third. Collingwood to have a big break by the end of the third. Cancel the last quarter for lack of interest because nobody wants their star players to get injured and Essendon will not make up a 7 goal deficit.

Final score Collingwood 118 to Essendon 71.

Hopefully this game is the opener to a great 2011 season and I look forward to providing you with previews and reviews that entertain. Like most things Australian, this column has seen fit to sell out to Chinese interests, as your correspondent is currently working in Daqing, north-west China. It's the way of the world folks.

See you all again in a fortnight for the real thing!

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