Sydney pile on late goals to smash Carlton, Lance Franklin boots 10 to take Coleman Medal lead
AN epic performance from Lance Franklin gives Sydney the perfect finals tune-up with big win over Carlton and Buddy the lead in the Coleman Medal.
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OVER to you, Josh Kennedy and Joe Daniher.
An epic 10-goal performance from Lance Franklin has given Sydney the perfect finals tune-up, an 81-point win over Carlton, a toe-hold on fourth spot on the ladder and Buddy the lead in the race for the Coleman Medal.
On a perfect night at the SCG, it was the Buddy Show from the outset, he booted one in the first quarter, two in the second, three in the third and four in the last as the Swans ran out 21.12 (138) to 8.9 (57) winners.
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Luckily for the Blues they didn’t play a fifth.
He’s the first player to reach double figures since the reigning Coleman Medallist Josh Kennedy booted 10 against Carlton in Round 2, 2015.
Kennedy will now need to boot six against the ladder leading Adelaide Crows on Sunday to retain the Coleman and Daniher will need to match Franklin’s effort of 10 against Fremantle just to draw level.
History was working in Franklin’s favour going into the match. He has won the Coleman three times, in 2008, 2011, 2014.
He also become just the 10th player to boot more than 850 career goals.
“It’s always nice to kick a bag,” Franklin said after the game.
“My accuracy has been poor this year so it was good to kick straight. We’ve got a great club and a great culture but this is finals footy now and that’s what it’s all about.”
Swans coach John Longmire said Franklin’s outstanding performance was a reflection of the hard years he’s been putting in during the week.
“Lance has been training really well over the last couple of weeks,” Longmire said.
“He’s been training hard and sharp and getting two sessions out a week. Even the best that helps, he was fantastic clearly and when he’s got his tail up he’s hard to stop.”
The performance was made even more remarkable by the fact he was playing on Liam Jones who is arguably the form defender in the competition.
In the best finish to the goal kicking race in years, Ben Brown booted seven against Brisbane earlier in the day to move to 63, just one behind Kennedy.
The only downside for the Swans was an ankle injury to Kurt Tippett.
The big man picked up the injury 20 minutes into the first quarter and was treated in the dressing rooms before returning in the second quarter. He played most of the third term but when the game was on ice early in the last John Longmire put Tippett on ice as well.
For a 10 minute period they were without both their rucks when Callum Sinclair also went off with an ankle injury before he also returned in the second term.
“Sinclair played out the game and Tippett played till three-quarter-time and then we took him off,” Longmire said.
Longmire expects to have all three of his ruckmen including Sam Naismith (abdominal) to be available for the first week of the finals.
“Naismith is fine and trained very well today which is a good sign,” Longmire said.
The win was the Swans 14th for the year and completes a remarkable turnaround from their Round 6 loss to the Blues at the MCG.
Since then Sydney have won 14 of the next 16 games to become the first team to start 0-6 and play finals.
“The players have done a fantastic job to fight back from the start we had,” Longmire said.
“It was a start we didn’t want but to the players credit the turned it around with some fantastic football and they have some real belief in the way they’re going about it.”
The Blues looked very tired at the end of a challenging season which showed plenty of promise. They finished one win short of last year’s tally of seven but with a rich crop of youngsters including five nominations for the Rising Star Award there is plenty to look forward to.
Matthew Kreuzer capped off a great year with a dominant performance in the ruck and Charlie Curnow continues his brilliant season which could see him take out the Rising Star.
Originally published as Sydney pile on late goals to smash Carlton, Lance Franklin boots 10 to take Coleman Medal lead
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