Buddy Franklin loses it and hits Trent Cotchin with TWO right hands

Buddy Franklin had an uncharacteristic brain fade at the SCG after the gun forward swung two right hands at Richmond rival Trent Cotchin during a lacklustre first half on Friday night. 

Richmond raced into a 25-point lead at the break after a dominant first half against the Swans, with Dustin Martin putting on a midfield clinic on his audition for a move to New South Wales.

And as the game coasted towards the half time siren, Franklin lost his head in an altercation with Cotchin, landing two right hands clean on the Richmond star’s jaw in ugly scenes.

Replays showed that the first strike was clearly an open-handed hit, although it remains unclear whether the second was a closed fist or another open hander.

The incident will surely be reviewed by the Match Review Officer, with the 35-year-old likely to face a spell on the sidelines if a grim view is taken of the incident.

‘It’s clearly an intentional strike, it’s clearly high, but the issue here from both angles is how much force is there? We don’t really see,’ Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph said on Fox Footy.

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said: ‘Either that (there was contact) or Trent should go to Hollywood.

Buddy Franklin will surely cop a suspension after throwing two right hands at Trent Cotchin

The Sydney Swans veteran lost his head with the Richmond star late on in the first half

Replays showed that both strikes were open-handed but he will certainly be in hot water

‘I’ve got a sneaking suspicion there was contact. Definitely contact and he’s thrown it, I don’t know how you can argue it isn’t deliberate.’ 

However, AFLW star Daisy Pearce is less convinced that Franklin will face a spell out. 

‘I think he’ll be right, I think he went for a push on the chest and slipped a bit high,’ she said on Channel Seven.

‘They won’t like the look of it the AFL, but it slipped up high, an open hand, it barely brushed him and Cotchin played on fine.

‘I think a fine at worst.’

The incident clearly fired Franklin up, as he put in an enormous second half effort to help overturn that 25-point deficit to hand his side a 106-100 victory.

As for the ugly clash itself, Franklin was elusive post-match. ‘I can’t even remember it,’ he said on Channel Seven.