AFL Finals Preview: Hawthorn vs Bulldogs

A Friday night blockbuster, we head to the MCG Friday night to continue the AFL finals series. The red hot Hawks will take on an impressive Bulldogs outfit in a win or go home showdown.

What a year it has been for the Hawks. After a dismal first five games of the year, going zero wins from five starts, the Hawks miraculously transformed into one of the best teams in the competition.

The Hawks amazingly won 14 games and only had four losses, after that zero and five start. It was a shock to almost everyone this season; no one had the Hawks making their way into the eight before the season started, let alone after their poor start to the season.

This could well and truly be the game of the finals series in week one. Only one team will move past this game and for the loser it will be season 2024 done. This makes it such a high stakes game because these two teams are the most in form teams inside the eight.

The Hawks are a great momentum team, with their boldness to simply pile multiple goals in a row on teams. On the flip side, the Dogs are great at stopping a team’s momentum, sitting number two in the league for this area of the game.

The Bulldogs finished the season with 14 wins and the nine losses, claiming 6th spot only to percentage. Coming into tomorrow night the Dogs have four wins from their past five games which will give them great confidence.

The last time these two sides met was back in Round 8 of this year, where the Hawks got the better of the Dogs by seven points at Marvel Stadium.

Team News

Bulldogs:

Ins: James Harmes

Outs: Arthur Jones (omitted)

Hawks:

Ins: Josh Ward

Outs: Cam Mackenzie

Our prediction: Expect to see a real arm wrestle in the first half of the game before the Hawks grab the momentum and grow in confidence and own the second half. Hawks by 31.

Our attendance prediction: What is a sell out crowd already, expect to see upwards of 90,000 people at the G’.