Adelaide Crows vs Geelong Cats Predictions & Tips - Comfortable Cats win tipped in Round 1

Adelaide Crows vs Geelong Cats predictions for Saturday’s AFL Round 1 match
The match takes place at the Adelaide Oval (5.35am GMT)
Geelong have won the last 3 matches against Adelaide
The Cats are tipped to cover the handicap
Match preview, statistics, predictions and latest team news

Geelong and Adelaide will go head to head on Saturday (Getty)

Justin Darcy 19 Mar 2021

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Adelaide Crows vs Geelong Cats Predictions

Last season's runners-up Geelong Cats have picked up some of the AFL's biggest names in the trade and are stronger than 12 months ago

New recruit Jeremy Cameron will not be lining up to take on the Crows, but a near full strength side should beat a young Adelaide side who have a couple of debutants playing.

Geelong Cats were last season's runners-up.
Geelong Cats have won their last 3 matches against Adelaide Crows.
Adelaide Crows were last season's wooden spooners.
Adelaide have lost 17 of their last 18 day matches.

Head-to-Head

Geelong Cats have won the last three meetings between the sides. The Crows beating them in three straight prior to that.

The last time they met, we saw a 28-point win in favour of Geelong in a low-scoring 65-37 game.

Adelaide Crows Form

Last on the ladder is not where the Crows would have seen themselves sitting at the end of 2020. But that is where the ended after a horror season.

This is going to be a re-build season with highest draft pick Riley Thiltorpe (number two) debuting this season. On early impressions, he is going to be a future star of the competition.

What the Crows do have is a better 'work environment' as we saw towards the back end of last season where they were winning matches and looking like an actual AFL team.

In the end, they managed to finish with three wins from their last four games having gone winless to that point.

Adelaide Crows Team News

The Crows have named two debutants, Jimmy Rowe and Sam Berry, with both playing inside roles.

Matt Crouch is left out due to a groin injury, while Tom Doedee has undergone a test to be facing Geelong as part of the interchange.

Adelaide Crows Team List

B: A.McPherson, J.Butts, L.Brown

HB: W.Hamill, B.Smith, J.Kelly

C: L.Sholl, R.Sloane, P.Seedsman

HF: J.Rowe, B.Frampton, N.McHenry

F: S.McAdam, T.Walker, L.Murphy

FOLL: R.O’Brien, R.Laird, B.Keays

I/C: T.Lynch, S.Berry, H.Schoenberg, T.Doedee

EMG: D.Fogarty, C.Jones, M.Hinge, D.Mackay

Geelong Cats Form

Geelong eyes will be set firmly on a premiership this season after what was a slight choke in the Grand Final against Richmond Tigers last year.

The Cats went down 81-50 in the decider at the Gabba as the Tigers retained their premiership flag.

They have picked up well in the draft with the signings of Jeremy Cameron, Shaun Higgins and Isaac Smith, who will make a massive impact to this already dominant side.

This is the Cats' year to win the flag, and they should make the most of these oppportunites against the weaker sides to get both percentage and points.

Geelong Cats Team News

Jeremy Cameron will not be making his debut for the Cats. Issac Smith and Shaun Higgins will make their Geelong bows.

Mitch Duncan is still a week or two away from returning and misses out along with Esava Ratugolea, who fractured his leg and is likely to miss up to another month of footy.