WITH one-point margins separating the Western Bulldogs and Geelong in their past two matches, Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade fully expects another close encounter when they meet on Sunday.
The tally was one-all last season, with the Cats holding the most recent bragging rights.
Celebrated former Lion Jason Akermanis and ex-Eagle Andrew McDougall are set to make their debuts for their new club, while Luke Darcy and Robert Murphy will make their home-and-away comebacks from knee complaints, and Eade anticipates another fierce duel with Geelong.
“It will be a tough, tight game, there's no doubt. It will be close either way,” he said. “Both teams are pretty evenly matched.”
One who is likely to miss is veteran key position player Chris Grant, who is battling a groin/abdominal complaint. Eade suggests the durable star will not be risked.
“We'll know more today. He's feeling OK but even if he's 100 per cent, we've got to decide because he hasn't had a lot of game time,” Eade said.
“That will be the decision we've got to make at some stage but he might not be right either. I would think he'd be less than 50-50 at this stage.
“(Darcy and Murphy) will play. That will be pleasing for them. They've had three games and each week they've stepped that up, so their training has been very good and I think they have their confidence back.”
While Akermanis has been relatively subdued since arriving at Whitten Oval, there is talk he will reintroduce his victory handstand should the Dogs have a win on Sunday.
“I think it's great. It's fantastic,” Eade said when asked what he thought of the celebration.
“Like all teams, we go around and we thank our fans and give them applause, and people go up to the fence and give high-fives to supporters. Him doing handstands isn't a big deal but maybe because it's Aker people make a big deal of it.”
Eade also threw his support behind the open letter on the drugs issue that AFL boss Andrew Demetriou wrote to all AFL supporters on Tuesday night, and said the league's drug rules should no longer be questioned.
“He made some good points,” Eade said. “Unfortunately, what's getting lost in all this is we're the only sport that tests for illicit drugs in Australia.
“People are canning the actual policy but if we didn't have that policy that other sports haven't got, we wouldn't have uncovered what we've uncovered at the moment to try and help individuals.
“It's amazing that no other sports are going to do it now, either. You can read into that what you like but what are they scared to uncover?
“The AFL weren’t scared to uncover anything and should be applauded for that rather than people criticising the policy.”
