BUDDY KICKS EIGHT:
SWANS SPOIL THE PARTY OUT WEST
IT was Jake Lloyd who had the honour of kicking the first AFL goal at Perth Stadium and Luke Parker who kicked a magical sealer.
But the record WA footy crowd in attendance will remember last night mainly for the Buddy show.
Sydney has gone about its pre-season with the application of a team that started last season 0-6 and the Swans were ready to make a statement.
West Coast had no shortage of motivation of its own as it opened its new home amid predictions of a slide down the ladder, but the Eagles had no answer to Lance Franklin.
Even more significantly, they didn’t have their own star spearhead at the other end of the ground with Josh Kennedy sidelined.
The underdog Eagles kept coming and were full of heart. The home side won the inside-50 count 60-52, but while “Buddy” Franklin was a magnet at one end on the way to his haul of 8.1, there was no such target for West Coast.
Franklin’s display against Tom Barrass, Jeremy McGovern and Will Schofield was awesome and you got the feeling that even if the three had taken him at once he still would have emerged on top.
The first half was Franklin not only at his peak but at his most complete. By the time the halftime siren sounded after a frenetic opening two quarters, Franklin had five goals and the Eagles were on the ropes.
The Eagles kicked two goals in the final 13 seconds of the third term, with Nic Naitanui imposing himself in his comeback from 19 months out with a knee injury.
West Coast had slashed Sydney’s five-goal lead to just five points with a quarter to play. The teams went goal for goal for most of a classic last quarter. When Parker came up with his jaw-dropping overhead goal for the Swans, the Eagles came up empty-handed.