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Quiet night for Buddy as Eagles pluck the Swans

West Coast and the wet Sydney weather put a dampener on the Lance Franklin show as the Eagles beat the Swans by 35 points in the NAB Challenge match at Blacktown on Thursday night.

A hardy crowd of 3045 watched Franklin struggle on his Swans debut, but so did he majority of his teammates in steady drizzle and slippery conditions.

Well held by Mitchell Brown, Franklin tallied six touches, three marks and just one behind.

His solitary score was a 55-metre set shot which went just wide to the right.

West Coast followed up their 84-point rout of Fremantle with another encouraging performance, especially in the second half.

Between them, the teams kicked five goals in the first half, with Sydney leading by one point at the first break and by four at halftime.

The Eagles kicked 7.5 to 0.0 from late in the second quarter to early in the fourth to take control.

Callum Sinclair and Brant Colledge both kicked two goals for the visitors.

Sinclair, Brown Elliot Yeo, Xavier Ellis and Chris Masten were among the Eagles’ best performers.

Gary Rohan kicked three goals for Sydney, while the Swans’ Heath Grundy and Craig Bird led the possession-getters with 35 and 32 respectively.

After a well-contested first half, West Coast dominated out of the centre and kicked a series of goals from close range.

Franklin moved to centre half back in the third quarter, but collected just one touch for the term as the Eagles dominated.

A frustrated Franklin gave away a couple of free kicks in the second half as he tried hard to inject himself into the game, though the tide of action was flowing against the Swans.

Young Sydney midfielder Luke Parker had a bandage wrapped across his face and covering his right eye after coming off in the second quarter, while Rohan appeared to get an ankle knock, but came back on.

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