THEY COULD not have come off more different weeks, but Saturday night will see two arch rivals meet at the home of football.
Carlton will enter the Round 4 clash full of confidence following the win over Geelong, while there’s a sense of the unknown with Essendon after last week’s fixture against Melbourne was postponed.
And that’s not the only sense of intrigue surrounding the Saturday night clash, with both teams entering with a distinct clash of styles.
From the opening three rounds, Carlton has recorded the highest kick-to-handball ratio of any team in the competition: 70.7 per cent of Carlton’s disposals were by foot last week, a season-high.
Meanwhile, Essendon has clearly shown its desire to run the ball, ranking fourth in the competition for using the ball by hand.
As they did on the weekend, the Blues will be backing in their tall timber up forward: they rank second for marks inside 50 this season.
There’s arguably no better target in the air than an in-form Levi Casboult, who will have his hands full against star defender Michael Hurley.
Casboult was one of Carlton’s most influential players in the victory over the Cats, while Hurley’s first two performances were crucial in Essendon’s back-to-back wins to start the year.
Marc Pittonet is the one to watch on the AFL Fantasy front this week, as a certainty to rise in price.
“He competes, he follows up and then he puts pressure. What we want from him is a big physical pressure and he delivered that.”
— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) June 22, 2020
Big wraps for Pitto following another strong performance on Saturday night. #OwnTheFuture
The ruckman couldn’t have been more impressive in his start to life at his new club, with Senior Coach David Teague complimenting his physical approach.
Pittonet has averaged 76 Fantasy points in his first two games in the Navy Blue.
