It was a performance that made the doubters look foolish and Lance Franklin's stellar eight-goal performance against West Coast was rated the fifth-best game since 2010.

 saw the superstar Swan rack up a massive 39.9 points.

That effort saw him rise a spot to a career-high No.6 in the Player Ratings.

The best game ever recorded was also by Franklin, when he was at Hawthorn, for his 13-goal game against North Melbourne in 2012. He notched up 50.5 points that day.

Few can dominate like 'Buddy' and it shows in the numbers – he has three of the six highest scores ever.

Franklin had both knees and an ankle operated on at the end of last season and having recently turned 31, questions swirled about what condition he might be to start the season.

However, the West Australian stole the show at the opening of Optus Stadium and looked unstoppable.

The Player Ratings overall rankings are calculated by taking into account an individual's past 40 games over a rolling two-year period.

Best six performances since 2010

Score

Player

Opponent

Time

50.5Lance Franklin (Hawthorn)North MelbourneR10, 2012
48.7Steve Johnson (Geelong)MelbourneR19, 2011
43.2Mark LeCras (West Coast)EssendonR16, 2010
40.8Gary Ablett (Gold Coast)AdelaideR8, 2011
39.9Lance Franklin (Sydney)West CoastR1, 2018
38.4Lance Franklin (Sydney)CarltonR23, 2017