Collingwood under fire over 'insulting' act towards Buddy Franklin

Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown has called out Collingwood over their decision to play Brayden Maynard on Buddy Franklin in the Swans' preliminary final victory, rather than gun defender Darcy Moore.

A fired-up Franklin bounced back from an unusually quiet showing in the qualifying final two weeks earlier to spark Sydney's explosive opening against Collingwood as they held on for a one-point victory at the SCG.

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Franklin was heavily involved and booted two goals as the Swans set up what proved to be just enough of a lead against the Magpies after going scoreless for the first time in a final when the Swans overran Melbourne.

Speaking on Fox Footy's 'On the Couch' on Monday night, Brown declared Collingwood's move to put Maynard on Franklin the 'wrong' call, with the Pies giving up their biggest half-time lead of the entire season on Sunday.

The shocking first half came back to haunt the Magpies after an extraordinary comeback fell short by just one point.

Brown savaged Collingwood over their decision, particularly after Melbourne's Steven May managed to shut down Franklin in the first week of the finals.

“I was surprised for two reasons – because the job Steven May did on Buddy Franklin but still able to influence the game offensively, and of course the job Darcy Moore did on Tom Hawkins," Brown said.

"So you go: ‘geez perfect match up for Buddy Franklin’.

“Let (Franklin) go up the ground as well, Moore would be able to set up. Unfortunately for Collingwood, it didn’t work out at all."

Brown said he would have felt 'insulted' if an opposition team put someone like Maynard on to defend him when he was playing.

“When you go back to our days of playing as a key forward, if I had Brayden Maynard come to me as a smaller defender, I would be insulted," he said.

“As we know Buddy Franklin has been underrated in terms of his competitiveness. He’s a great competitor, so he would have been hurting from last week – his performance.

“So when Maynard comes, I think he would have stuck the chest out and thought, ‘hang on a minute, are you disrespecting me here?’

“Collingwood's match ups have been fantastic all year … but I think this one they got wrong.”

Darcy Moore shines after move onto Buddy Franklin

Moore was moved to defend Franklin in the second half, which coincided with Collingwood's epic comeback.

Moore had one intercept possession in the first half and no intercept marks.

However he had nine intercept possessions and four intercept marks in the second stanza, which saw Collingwood score 39 points from turnovers.

“No intercept marks in the first half – he didn’t get involved,” Garry Lyon said.

“He wasn’t even in the contest.

“He goes onto Buddy in the second half, and all of a sudden their intercept possessions go up, he gets involved, they score from the back half and it’s a Collingwood game again.”

St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt added: “Did they outsmart themselves a little bit too Collingwood?

“Buddy takes you to the ball. He takes you to the situation where he’s in the contest time and time again – similar to what we saw with Steven May a few weeks ago.

“(The match up) was a little bit of a head scratcher that one.”

with AAP

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