Friday's outing between Sydney and Geelong will forever be remembered as the game where Lance 'Buddy' Franklin kicked his 1000th goal.
As the Sherrin sailed through the big sticks to anoint Buddy among the most exclusive club of Aussie Rules goalkickers, he was immediately engulfed by what seemed like all 36,578 spectators in attendance at the SCG. As a result, Chad Warner, who had set up Franklin for the record-breaking kick, was unable to congratulate the living legend immediately after the feat.
“I was thinking, ‘If I go down here, it could be a bit dangerous.’ The initial part of the moshpit, you had to use a fair bit of strength to get yourself up,” Warner told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“When I tried to get to him, I just saw this drink get thrown, stuff going everywhere - I didn’t get hit by it luckily, but I assume a few beers were poured on him. I saw a little kid go down, then he just vanished; I don’t know what happened to him. It was total chaos. Obviously, everyone wanted to get to Lance, but the crowd was loving [all the players] they went past. It was just a good atmosphere in there.”
Warner's decision to avoid the chaos was likely a wise one as the pandemonium warranted its own quarter in terms of time surpassed given that it took security and police upwards of 20 minutes to clear the crowd.
Yet, Warner found himself stuck on the opposing end of the ground with fellow Swan Ollie Florent as their teammates made their way back into the Sydney locker room. Luckily for the pair, who had been separated from their team for quite some time, a Swans staffer discovered them near the Geelong race and helped escort them back to John Longmire and their teammates.
Their route back was long and eventful as they were made to leave the stadium and walk around Driver Avenue to escape the mayhem, but the pair still couldn't make a stealthy go of it from fans as they roamed the streets suited up.
“A lot of them just ended up going home at that point when they were all outside,” Warner said.
“We were walking with them, going out the gates, as a fan would, walking along the street. They were all just looking at us like, ‘what the hell are you doing out here?’ We were talking to each other to say, ‘I can’t believe we’ve still got a game going on right now - and we’re outside.’”
After navigating the entirety of the SCG's outer perimeter, Warner finally sought out Buddy. The monumental moment not only immortalised Franklin but also stamped out a spot for Warner in footy folklore as the two will now forever be tied.
“Everyone said they’d been looking for us for a little while,” Warner said. “I said, ‘where’s Lance?’ They pointed him out to me and I went straight up and congratulated him. It was a pretty nice moment.”
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,”. “I just think, ‘Oh yeah, this happened, that was that, and I’ll move on.’ When you think about it a bit more it’s pretty surreal. It’s one of - wait, the best thing in my career. So far, at least.“
The Swans capped off the night with a win over Geelong, now setting their sights on making it three wins in as many weeks when they travel to Marvel Stadium to face the Western Bulldogs on Thursday.