Kane Cornes is confident that the Western Bulldogs beat Collingwood at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.
While the Dogs sit 11th with a 5-6 win-loss record and the Pies sit eighth with a 6-2-3 record and haven’t lost since Round 2, Cornes is expecting their next loss to come on Friday.
He thinks that the Dogs even win by a big margin under the roof given the circumstances facing Collingwood including their growing injury list that includes Jordan De Goey, Jamie Elliott, Mason Cox, Brody Mihocek, Dan McStay, Scott Pendlebury, Tom Mitchell, Joe Richards, Reef McInnes and a handful of younger players.
He explained his reasons behind his tip to David King on SEN Breakfast.
While Cornes is extremely confident in the Dogs, King can see the Magpies rallying despite adversity and isn’t writing them off despite things seemingly lining up for Luke Beveridge’s side.
Cornes: “Tonight is Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs, I just think the Dogs win, and they win big.”
King: “Big?”
Cornes: “Yeah, I do.”
King: “Give me a reason why they win big.”
Cornes: “I’ve got a couple of reasons. One, because they’re playing Collingwood’s VFL side with the number of injuries that they’ve got. Two, the Pies are travelling home from a big Perth trip, and the Bulldogs have got an extra day’s break.
“They (the Dogs) are playing at Marvel, where they play pretty well and they’re in pretty good form.
“I think they win comfortably.
But I’ve been wrong before.”
King: “Richards is a big out, Naughton is a big out.”
Cornes: “Yeah, but they’ve got cover for Naughton with Lobb coming in structurally and Darcy and Ugle-Hagan are there.
“Collingwood have been absolutely decimated.”
King: “They have, but I look at the Collingwood line up and they’re going to have to play small-ball forward of the footy, we know that they just don’t have a tall target to kick to.
“But I’m not writing them off. Some of the things that they’re doing at centre bounces are just next level, the coaching there, it’s just on a different plane to the rest of the competition.
“How they’re getting the best out of Nick Daicos is amazing.
“I’m not putting it past them tonight.”
The bounce for Friday’s game at Marvel Stadium is set for 7:40 pm (AEST).