Tiger Army mobilises for battle with the Giants

GREATER Western Sydney will be confronted by a seething cauldron of yellow and black when they take on Richmond at the MCG.

Based on yesterday’s booming ticket sales, the Melbourne Cricket Club has estimated a crowd of more than 90,000 fans will attend Saturday’s preliminary final.

The resounding majority of those fans will be long-suffering Richmond supporters if the recent qualifying final against Geelong is any guide. That match was a Cats home game in name only as the Tiger Army turned out en masse in a crowd of 95,028 fans to cheer their side on to a 51-point win.

The projected turnout will easily exceed the biggest crowd that GWS has ever played in front of – a factor Richmond champion Dale Weightman said cannot be overlooked.

“That’s something we’ve got in our favour,” Weightman told Fox Sports. “It’s not going to win us the game, but it’s going to be daunting for them.

“The Tiger Army will get right behind the side and they’ll make (the MCG) like a fortress.”

The huge turn out will be in stark contrast to the meagre crowd of 14,865 fans that watched the Giants defeat West Coast at Spotless Stadium on Saturday night. Tickets for both preliminary finals went on sale to competing club’s members at 9am and were quickly snapped up.

Members of the general public got their chance at 2pm and followed suit. The AFL issued an update at 5pm yesterday advising that public tickets for Saturday’s game and the Friday night clash between Adelaide and Geelong at Adelaide Oval had been exhausted.

AFL Reserve tickets for the MCG clash go on sale today, with limited numbers of unused club or AFL allocations for both games to go on sale on Thursday.