The last match of the third and final bye round will see the Bulldogs take on the Magpies at Marvel Stadium. It should be a great clash to finish of an exciting Round 14 of the 2019 AFL Premiership Season.
Don’t forget, Collingwood vs Western Bulldogs will be our focus today, but you can head to our AFL Tips Page for a heap more AFL content, including preview and tips for EVERY GAME.
AFL Round 14 Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood
Sunday 3:20pm, Marvel Stadium
We’ve got a very interesting fixture to close Round 14 with the Bulldogs and Magpies meeting for the second time this season. The Dogs will be looking to record back-to-back wins for the third time this season, while the Magpies need the four points to stay in touch with the top four.
Western Bulldogs
The Bulldogs endured an interesting first half of the season with quite a few ups and downs. In a way, last weekend’s match against the Blues summed up their season to date. They led by 5+ goals during the final quarter and only managed to hold on by three points. Josh Dunkley continued his purple patch with a monster 41 disposal game, while Macrae found plenty of it himself with 37 touches.
While the Bulldogs did collect all four points against the Blues in Round 13, they’ll be looking for a much stronger four quarter performance this weekend. Some exciting news for Dogs fans is the potential debut of Rhylee West, who’s the son of club champion Scott West. Rhylee has been included in the extended squad for Sunday. As it stands, the Bulldogs are sitting in 14thspot on the ladder with a 5-7 record.
Collingwood Magpies
The Magpies had a freshener in Round 13 with their scheduled bye. Prior to that was their Queen’s Birthday clash with the Demons where they were simply too good for their old rivals. It was a dominant and necessary performance on the back of a poor loss to the Dockers in the week prior. Adam Treloar was at his best with 34 touches and a goal, earning himself best on ground honours.
Looking at the season as a whole, you feel like the Magpies are exactly where they’d like to be. They haven’t been perfect by any stretch, but they’ve shown the ability in big matches to play their best footy. They’re currently in third spot on the ladder with a 9-3 record and have the chance to leapfrog the Giants into second if they get the win on Sunday.
History
The Magpies have had the Bulldogs measure since 1980, defeating them 39 times compared to 24. They’ve also took home the chocolates in their past two meetings, although before that the Bulldogs had won five straight against the Pies.
Last five meetings:
2019 R4 – Collingwood (78) defeated Western Bulldogs (64)
2018 R10 – Collingwood (90) defeated Western Bulldogs (55)
2017 R1 – Collingwood (86) lost to Western Bulldogs (100)
2016 R21 – Western Bulldogs (95) defeated Collingwood (92)
2016 R10 – Collingwood (53) lost to Western Bulldogs (74)
Prediction
Strangely enough, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs met each other just nine weeks ago in Round 4. The Bulldogs threw everything at the Magpies that day but came up short by 14 points, which will lower their confidence coming into this weekend’s meeting.
The bookies have the Magpies as just under four goal favourites here, which is probably fair enough considering the Magpies haven’t been at their absolute best in recent times. However, we believe they match up really well against the Dogs and will be out to make a statement after all their off-field drama this week.
Collingwood Magpies -22.5
$1.90
