MATCH DETAILS
Geelong v Melbourne, Sunday April 6, at Skilled Stadium, 1.10pm

FORECAST
Fine
Minimum 12, Maximum 20

BETTING
Geelong $1.02, Melbourne $12.00 (TAB Sportsbet)

LAST TIME THEY MET
Geelong 15.19 (109) d Melbourne 8.9 (57), round 3, 2007, MCG

FORM GUIDE
Melbourne
It's been a miserable start to the year for Melbourne. Two shattering losses to Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs respectively have tarnished the start of the club's 150th year celebrations. It has also been an unenviable situation for new coach Dean Bailey, yet he has remained calm and collected publicly, displaying great character for someone in the senior hot seat for the first time. Still, Melbourne's task of overcoming Geelong at home this weekend will be an enormous challenge.

Geelong
The Cats have started the season how they finished 2007 - in blistering style. Not only have last year's premiers overcome their grand final opponent again - and away from home - Geelong also clobbered Essendon by 99 points, after the Dons won their round one encounter with North Melbourne by 55. Geelong is massive favourites to win this clash against Melbourne and rightly so - it has won 21 of its 22 matches since round six last year.

RANDOM FACTS
Although Melbourne has a poor record at Skilled Stadium, having won five of its 30 matches at the ground from 1967 to 2007, the Demons have drawn and won respectively in their last two outings at the Cattery.

KEY MATCH-UPS
David Neitz v Matthew Scarlett
Nathan Carroll v Tom Hawkins
Clint Bartram v Gary Ablett

WHAT THE CLUBS SAY
Melbourne
"There's no point turning up next week [against Geelong] if we think we can't win the game," Dean Bailey said after round two.

"You can sit there and say 'Dean, you've just lost the last two games'.

"There's another game next week [against Geelong] and we get the chance to prove ourselves, play more competitively for longer against the best team in the competition and I think that's a great challenge."

Geelong
"We're going to look at the team we play – Melbourne – in the same depth and we're going to try to play the best footy we're capable of playing," Mark Thompson said after round two.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.