Was this the moment Buddy Franklin swung the game back in Sydney’s favour? Superstar forward rallies his Swans teammates after FEISTY antics with Steven May as visitors triumph over Melbourne at the MCG
- Buddy Franklin sparked Sydney’s comeback victory over Melbourne on Friday
- The veteran forward had been kept quiet in the first quarter by Steven May
- However, he managed to rustle the superstar defender into conceding a 50m
- May’s antics lit a fuse under the Swans and they earned a huge victory
It appeared a seemingly quiet night at the office for Steven May after the first quarter siren sounded on Friday night.
Melbourne’s defensive colossus had, after all, kept superstar forward Buddy Franklin under wraps for most of the opening term at the MCG, reading the game beautifully to stifle the veteran’s attacking threat.
Yet it was a petulant discrepancy on May’s part in the second quarter which lit a fuse under the Swans and helped galvanise the visitors in a mammoth win to advance to the preliminary final.
This moment involving Buddy Franklin and Steven May inspired the Swans to victory on Friday
The veteran superstar riled his Melbourne rival to drag Sydney back into the MCG contest
After failing to keep out a James Rowbottom punt, Franklin taunted May with the defender too preoccupied with the big forward to stop the ball from dribbling through the posts.
Franklin ramped things up in his war of words with May, getting under his skin to the point that May knocked the 35-year-old to the turf twice in quick succession.
The umpire awarded a 50-metre penalty in Sydney’s favour and Will Hayward slotted home much to the delight of the travelling masses.
Sydney went on to score 19 points and take a one-goal lead into the halftime break in a tightly contested qualifying final at the MCG, before surging ahead in the fourth term to win by four goals.
Franklin did not contribute much on the scoreboard but lit a fuse under his teammates
There were wild scenes on the final siren as the Swans sealed a huge victory on enemy soil
‘He was clearly on top of Franklin,’ Jonathan Brown said at the break. ‘What was he going do about it? He had him put to bed at quarter time, almost the perfect game but at the second quarter this happens, it becomes a powder keg and May makes a few mistakes.’
‘What you’ve done is lit the fuse on Lance Franklin and the rest of the Sydney team,’ Nathan Buckley said of May’s antics.
‘It was a significant moment because the Swans kicked a goal, but Melbourne made a success of handling the situations no matter what happened last season.
Nick Riewoldt added: ‘What it did was invite the Sydney team into the game. Make no mistake, it was a momentum shifter, all of a sudden Franklin got a spark, [Tom] Papley got a spark and they came back into the game.’
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