Lance Franklin future: Where to next for AFL superstar in retirement?

One AFL executive says Lance Franklin can’t be lost to football. But as SCOTT GULLAN discovers, there’s a chance one of the league’s biggest superstars is “going to disappear”. What will Buddy do next?

Lance Franklin. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Mystery surrounds the next chapter in the Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin story with a relocation to Queensland and a coffee-table book, the only moves set in stone.

As the dust settled on the AFL great’s retirement from the game, the picture of what’s next for Buddy Inc. is no clearer for friends and colleagues of the Sydney champion.

“No-one knows what he’s doing,” one close associate of Franklin and his model wife Jesinta said. “I think Buddy is going to disappear.”

The glamour couple have sold their luxury Sydney home and are planning to move their young family – daughter Tullulah and son Rocky – to the Gold Coast to be closer to Jesinta’s family.

Lance and Jesinta Franklin pictured in 2016. Picture: AAP Image/Brendan Esposito.

They purchased a seven-bedroom Mediterranean-style mansion in the Gold Coast hinterland for $9 million in November last year.

There is a sense the AFL will come knocking with a sizeable carrot for Franklin to be an ambassador for the code in the rugby heartland.

“They can’t allow Buddy to be on the Gold Coast and not use him,” one AFL executive said. “Buddy might be lost to playing but there is no way they are going to lose him to football.

“But what that role is going to be, that’s the issue.”

The well-trodden path of coaching and taking a role in the media by former AFL stars won’t be happening although Franklin does enjoy the recruiting side of the football business.

At the Swans he was known to keep up to date with the U/18 national championships and offer his advice to the recruiting department on prospective draftees.

He is likely to keep strong ties with the Swans given he is a member of the club’s Reconciliation Action Plan committee and a supporter of its First Nations Academy.

Franklin is a marketer’s dream with more than 354,000 followers on Instagram which he uses to promote products and companies which have his name attached.

He recently starred in a TV commercial for vitamins giant Swisse alongside his wife while also promoting the Zenith watch brand.

While he was a no-show to his own retirement press conference and has even reportedly put on hold a request from his good mate, former Hawthorn teammate Jordan Lewis, to do a one-on-one interview with him on Fox Footy, Franklin started to spruik a new authorised book on his Instagram on Thursday.

It’s not an autobiography but an “illustrated visual companion” to his 1066-goal career and is due out on October 18.

Throughout his 19 seasons and 354 games, Franklin, 36, is estimated to have earned well over $25 million from his playing contracts and marketing spin-offs.

When he joined Sydney from Hawthorn in 2014, he signed the biggest contract in AFL history, a nine-year deal worth $10.2 million.

A Swans insider estimates Franklin’s 10 year career was worth at least $100m to the club when you take into account corporate sponsorship, membership, ticket sales, merchandise and earned media.

Lance Franklin celebrates a goal in one of his last AFL matches. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

The Swans say it’s impossible to truly quantify the immense value Franklin delivered to their bottom line but over the his time at the club membership has grown from 26,358 in 2013 to 62,000-plus in 2023.

Over the same period average attendance at the SCG has increased from 25,629 to 31,711 while fan base has rocketed from 1.13m total fans as measured by Roy Morgan to 2.16m total fans in 2023 according to the latest YouGov data.

His legacy reaches far greater with his impact on the ground roots level of football in NSW a game-changer. Players who are now his teammates, such as Sydney born and bred Errol Gulden, were inspired to play AFL and come through the pathways because they grew up watching Franklin play.

There was a suggestion the Franklin’s were looking at launching their own sports talent agency, an Australian version of rapper Jay Z’s management company Roc Nation, which represents some of the world’s most elite athletes.

The Franklin family is poised to relocate to Queensland.

Jesinta did complete an AFL Players’ Association accreditation course last year and hinted recently it was something she may look at down the track.

“I did my accreditation to learn a little more about the industry and broaden my understanding and get a little bit of the landscape,” she said.

“There are definitely plans with that, but nothing in the immediate future.”

The Franklins recently set up a new partnership with their business manager, Adam Finch, called FranklinFinch Management.

Finch, a former teacher, took over as the business manager of Buddy Promotions and Jesinta Franklin Enterprises in 2021.

Franklin has previously dabbled in the rag trade although that ended badly in 2020 when he was criticised for selling his brand of clothing with the Aboriginal flag on it.

He launched the streetwear clothing line, Buddy Franklin Authentic, in 2018 which included T-shirts with the Aboriginal flag on it but ran into licensing issues over its use.

On Friday his first coach at Hawthorn, Alastair Clarkson, paid tribute to Franklin’s career and gave an insight into the reclusive superstar.

“I’m proud of him as a player but prouder of him as a man,” Clarkson said. “Great husband, great father and great mate.

“When he locks on with some mates, they are rusted on for good, that’s the sort of bloke he is.

“He’s pretty quiet and reserved, that’s why the guys who are fortunate enough to live in his inner sanctum, that’s why they regard him so highly.

“His feats on the field are pretty special but what they love about him is he’s such a loyal and committed mate to them.”

Originally published as Lance Franklin future: Where to next for AFL superstar in retirement?