WHEN Lance "Buddy" Franklin jogged to half-forward at the start of last night's match, he was accompanied by Trent Croad, his Hawthorn teammate on a routine weekend but tonight, his nominal enemy.

It was not the match-up that the public had talked about, the meeting of arguably the game's best forward (Franklin) and the best defender (Matthew Scarlett). But Mark Thompson's Victorian coaching staff had some inside oil here; Croad often takes Franklin at Hawthorn's scrimmages and is said to perform well in the match-up. Plus, in any case, the Hawks feel that Croad is underrated.

It was a nice moment for however many Hawthorn fans were in the 69,294 crowd at the MCG, for in a match such as this, the match-ups are just about everything. Similarly, Adam Goodes walked over to Matthew Richardson on the wing, two symbols of what the game has become with its size, power and athleticism. Wingers used to be medium-sized blokes who could run a bit. Today they are big men who can run and carry the footy.

As for Buddy, he was in his element with three first-half goals. The Dream Team had run through a banner with the words: "The Team That's Been 150 Years In The Making". And they believed their own publicity with the first three goals of the match.

Twenty minutes into the first quarter Victoria lost the ball at half-back and Dean Cox gathered it and belted it to the hot spot, where a pack of players tumbled — other than Franklin, who merely had to turn and bang it through.

Twelve minutes into the second, Ryan Griffen's handball found Franklin for another, then Mathew Stokes put the ball out in front of his key forward and let him run on to it for another at 25 minutes. Franklin is a monolith, his power awe-inspiring.

Once in the second quarter he went to the forward flank on a hard lead and Darren Milburn, nobody's idea of a shrinking violet, tried to cut off his run at the ball. Franklin saw him coming and sent the Geelong man sprawling, then caught the ball in clean hands.

Mostly, the teams played the type of footy that the AFL seems to want, with no stoppages, and plenty of room to move. They ran the ball from defence until they turned it over, and it went back the other way just as quickly. Sometimes it came off, for there was no defensive pressure to fetter them.

Neither team posted the traditional newspaper set of six forwards, leaving at least one spare man in defence. In the Dream Team's case it was Peter Burgoyne, who had his own football with 21 disposals for the first half. It is the sort of situation where statistics are rendered largely meaningless, although to be fair, Burgoyne was wonderful in-close as well, finishing the game with 36 disposals.

Save for a couple of big hits, there was not much physical contact. Daniel Kerr put his head over the football in the first quarter and copped the big hit from Steve Johnson, sending Kerr limping from the field not to return, and Craig Bolton's fearlessness saw him nailed in a heavy clash with Robert Murphy. But largely the teams playing keepings-off, and the crowd was rarely stirred.

The atmosphere was strangely mute, other than for a time in the last quarter when the crowd indulged itself in the wave. Plainly the contest lacked a bad guy, or someone to despise, although the skills were outstanding.

Franklin spent some time on the pine in the third quarter but came back hard in the last, roosting his fourth goal from 55 metres. But he finished with 4.5 for the night, and there was an irony in the fact that the Dream Team's forward line had not really functioned properly, when this was meant to be its strength. Richardson did not fire and Cameron Mooney was shut out of the game by his Geelong teammate, Scarlett.

At the other end the thinner Victorian front half was more efficient behind Brendan Fevola's six goals.