AFL Fremantle v Sydney: Lance Franklin’s six goals not enough as Swans succumb to Dockers

Lance Franklin booted six goals in Sydney’s loss to Fremantle on Saturday night, moving him to within 37 majors of a huge career achievement.

While opposition teams continue to have issues playing their best footy at Perth’s Optus Stadium, Lance Franklin seems to love it.

While Sydney may not have got the desired result on Saturday night, losing to Fremantle by two points in a thriller, ‘Buddy’ had a day out, snagging six majors – taking his career tally to 963 and moving ever-closer to the magical 1000 mark.

This was Franklin’s second visit to Optus Stadium since the venue was unveiled for the 2018 season.

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Lance Franklin edged closer to 1000 career goals with six against Fremantle. Picture: Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images

He played in that first game at the ground and booted eight goals against West Coast; still the most from any player.

The 34-year-old superstar would need to average 3.08 goals per game for the remainder of the home and away season – and play in every match – to surpass 1000 career majors, factoring in the mid-season bye and assuming the Swans don’t play finals (which seems unlikely at this point given their 6-4 record).

Buddy Franklin has joined Tony Lockett as the only players to have kicked 5+ goals multiple times vs 16 different V/@AFL clubs

@sydneyswans#AFLFreoSwans

— Swamp (@sirswampthing) May 22, 2021

SWANS LET MATCH SLIP

The Swans’ two-point loss to Fremantle was their fourth defeat in six games.

They will finish the round in seventh spot on the ladder, just one win and percentage ahead of the ninth-placed Dockers.

Sydney hosts Carlton next Sunday and the Blues should expect to face a side dead keen to win contested possessions.

Because they couldn’t do it in the second half at Optus Stadium on Saturday and will focus this week on making amends.

Sydney led by 15 points at halftime, having held an 83-76 advantage in the contested possession count at the main break.

But they were monstered in the third term and trailed by 13 points at the main break.

“The ball lived in their half,” Longmire said.

“They took six contested marks, we took zero. They were able to win the 50-50s, break even in front of the ball or win it.

John Longmire was frustrated that the Swans let the match slip. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“They were able to keep the ball in their front half; we weren’t able to do that.

“We got smacked by 20 contested possessions for the quarter; and that will generally do it.

“We reset at three-quarter-time, but we didn’t fix it during the course of the quarter.”

Fremantle turned the game on its head in the third term.

They had 97 possessions to the Swans 75; 42-25 contested.

They went inside their 50m area 21 times to the Swans’ seven.

If they had kicked more than 4.5 to 0.1 for the term, the game could have been over at the last break.

A late goal to Adam Cerra gave them a 13-point break going into the final quarter.

Sydney was able to straighten the ship in the final term and three goals from Lance Franklin in the quarter almost got them over the line.

They regained the lead, twice, but fell short by two points.

The Swans actually did well to get so close considering they lost the contested possession count by 14 and have so few inside 50s.

Against Geelong in Round 7, the game went a very similar way, and the Swans were able to fall over the line by two points.

Not helping the Swans cause on Saturday were injuries to Robbie Fox and Tom Hickey.

Fox was forced out of the game with a scratch to the eye.

Hickey was left sore in the middle of the ground just four minutes into the game; due to soreness of an already injured knee.

He has played four games since missing one with a PCL injury that was expected to see him sidelined for up to eight weeks.

The Swans expect him to push through and play against the Blues.

“It has happened a couple of times since he came back from his PCL,” Longmire said.

“It hurts him for a patch and then he is able to get through that. Hopefully it will happen less and less as his knee gets stronger.

“Next week? Don’t know … we think he’ll be right. It’s happened before.”

SCOREBOARD

DOCKERS 3.2 6.6 10.11 12.14 86

SWANS 4.0 9.3 9.4 13.6 84

ELBOROUGH’S BEST

Dockers: Lobb, Fyfe, Mundy, Walters, Cerra, Darcy. Swans: Franklin, Mills, Parker, Kennedy, Heeney, Dawson.

GOALS

Dockers: Lobb 4; Schultz 2; Taberner, Serong, Cerra, Walters, Treacey, Fyfe. Swans: Franklin 6; Papley 2; Warner, Rowbottom, Hayward, Florent, Heeney.

INJURIES

Dockers: Taberner (ankle) replaced by Blakely. Swans: Fox (eye) replaced by Clarke.

UMPIRES

Power, Dalgleish, Hosking.

VENUE

Optus Stadium

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

BRAD ELBOROUGH’S VOTES

3 Franklin (Swans)

2 Lobb (Dockers)

1 Mills (Swans)

Originally published as AFL Fremantle v Sydney: Lance Franklin’s six goals not enough as Swans succumb to Dockers