Buddy Joins Wade in Even More Exclusive 1000 Goal Club

1 Apr

The AFL world was sent into a frenzy last Friday night, with Lance “Buddy” Franklin becoming just the sixth man—after Gordon Coventry, Doug Wade, Gary Ablett Senior, Jason Dunstall, and Tony Lockett—to kick 1000 goals over their career.

But Franklin and the Swans came back to earth with a bump last night, going down to the Western Bulldogs by 11 points at Marvel Stadium. The Bulldogs should have won by a more convincing margin, kicking 9.17 from 49 inside 50s.

With the loss, Franklin joins Doug Wade as the only players to lose their first game after kicking their thousandth goal. Wade kicked three goals in the 1974 semi-final as his Kangaroos lost to Richmond by 21 points.

The table below shows the performances in the game after their thousandth goal was kicked. Individual stats are not available for Gordon Coventry, as these were not recorded at the time.

Swans coach John Longmire was uncertain if his team’s poor showing was the result of an emotional “hangover” after the celebrations of last week.

”Who knows? How do you know? We’ve got a young team and you talk about it and try to get yourself [up] but it’s hard to put a finger on it. It looked like we were off the pace”

Source: AFL website

Injured Swans ruck Sam Naismith had a different view on the result, with the Swans receiving 14 free kicks to the Bulldogs’ 31.