It was the match-up Steven May wanted, and the showdown the Northern Territory product pencilled in when the 2014 AFL fixture was released during pre-season training.

Gold Coast’s in-form fullback has played on the competition’s best forwards this season, but none bigger in stature than two-time Coleman medallist and current Sydney kingpin, Lance Franklin.

“I did see this one from the start of the year,” May told SUNS TV.

“I was very anxious and nervous; I like watching him play and not chasing him.”

On Sunday afternoon, May was superb against the Swans’ highly-publicised marquee signing, for the most part beating his star opponent in one-on-one contests.

Franklin finished with three-goals in what was a mixed performance for the two-time premiership spearhead.

May, on the other hand, capped off his latest stand-out display with 13 touches, six rebound-50s, five marks and an incredible 15 one-percenters; amazingly just his third-highest return in the performance indicator this season, with his total made up heavily by spoils.

Despite his brilliant individual performance, May deflected a lot of the praise for his effort on Franklin to teammates further up the field.

“I don’t think he was able to get the delivery he would have loved, so it’s a credit to the mids and forwards that popped the kicks and gave me a chance to be in the contest with him.”

Guy McKenna awarded his defensive twin towers in May and Rory Thompson a high grading in his post-match press conference.

“Certainly under fire, collectively, I’d talk those two boys up on the back that I thought our front 12 boys supplied a bit of heat to their use going forward, then what put the full stop on the sentence was the one-on-one contesting of Rory Thompson and Steven May,” McKenna said.

“I thought Steven May’s job....he’s (Franklin) in better form this round then he was in 1,2 or 3, and Kurt Tippett has played less footy but is pivotal to Sydney’s chances of kicking goals.

“Both boys, given the circumstances, were super.”

Looking ahead, May said the team faced a difficult task in West Coast at Patersons Stadium next week, but would be looking forward to the challenge of improving on tonight’s encouraging performance.

“Very important; we haven’t won over there, have a six-day break to recover well but I think we’re a legitimate chance if winning that, even though it is over there,” he said.

“’Bluey’ will fire the boys up, he loves playing against the Eagles and it will be a great test for us to back up our performance.”