Longmire lauds Franklin's brilliant 8-goal display

Longmire has heaped praised on his superstar forward Buddy Franklin after his match-winning 8 goal haul against the Eagles on Sunday night.

Franklin's 5-goal first half haul set the game up for the Swans, despite a dogged display from the Eagles, drawing within 5 points at three quarter time.

Despite the Eagle's domination of possession and territory, Franklin was instrumental in keeping the Swans' ahead at three quarter time, kicking his sides two goals for the quarter.

https://twitter.com/AFL/status/977863485181739008

Despite being outnumbered 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 in the last quarter, Longmire praised his ability to affect the contests and bring the ball to ground.

"You look at the goals he kicked and you can't deny that they were fantastic goals, important goals," Longmire said.

"The ability to halve the contest in the last quarter, and he was outnumbered 4 or 5 times in the last quarter.

"He just halved the contest and kept the ball in our front half, and those situations are just so critical, almost as important as the 8 goals.

"He just had an all-round game, whether it was offensively or pressure wise".

The Eagles were fierce in the third quarter, playing a frenetic finals-like game, kicking three late goals - two in the last minute, to draw within 5 points at the last change.

The Swans where resilient in the face of an Eagles avalanche, working their way back into the contest and finding a way to win.

The Swans kicked the first two goals of the last quarter, before finishing the quarter with 7 goals-to-3, 29-point victors.

"To come over here and win and importantly show the resilience that we showed at three quarter time, and to find a way to win and kick 7 goals in the last quarter, was a real credit to the players," Longmire said.

"You've got to have some resilience in those situations. At three quarter time the momentum certainly was their way.

"We spoke about just making sure we win the game, we don't save the game from that point on, there's no point trying to save it, and we did that.

"The players were sensational in that last quarter and sometimes you've just got to find a way to win and they did that".

In the week leading up to the match, the Eagles forward line looked as if though it was in a desperate situation, but with the late omissions of Gary Rohan and Sam Reid, Franklin was the only up-front target the Swans had.

Despite several operations in the off-season, Franklin looked sharp throughout the the pre-season and JLT campaign.

"He came off the back of a couple of minor clean-up surgeries in the off season, and looked after himself really well and got himself in really good condition," Longmire said.

"We knew going in this week that he was in reasonable touch, but with Reid and Rohan out of the team he needed to be, because he was our only up-front target.

"We had to make do, improvise in that situation, and you can improvise a bit better when you've got him up-front".

On Sam Reid, Gary Rohan and Dan Hannebery, Longmire said that despite Reid's late omission from the side, he should be right for next weekend against Port Adelaide.

"We thought he was a bit of a chance for this week," Longmire said.

"We weighed it all up and gave him as long as we could.

"He ran during the week and was good, but didn't want to take that extra risk but hopefully he's OK next week, and Rohan we'll take week-by-week.

"Hannebery played in our reserves on Friday and had a good hit out and pulled up really well and was confident".

The Sydney Swans take on Port Adelaide in Round 2 on Sunday April 1st at the SCG.

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Justin Mitchell

Justin is a passionate AFL and Sydney Swans supporter, and football blogger since 2016. All articles are of his own opinion. You can reach him by twitter and Facebook at @theswansblog

Melbourne, Australia https://theswansblog.com

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