Lance Franklin’s deal with Sydney stacks up no matter how you look at it, writes Jon Ralph

Lance Franklin is owed $1.4m this year, $1.5m next year and around $900,000 the year after. What does that mean for Sydney if he is now injury-prone? Jon Ralph says it doesn’t matter.

Teammates celebrate with Buddy after kicking a goal in his 300th game. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Lance Franklin’s latest soft-tissue injury is just the kind of setback for the “I told you so brigade” to leap from the woodwork.

Chief among them might be former AFL Commission boss Mike Fitzpatrick who went feral when Franklin’s nine-year, $10 million contract was announced.

Franklin is due $1.4 million on his contract this year, $1.5 million next year and around $900,000 in his final contracted season and suddenly he can’t stop breaking down with injuries.

Does the $3.8 million guaranteed to him in the final three years make that contract a bust?

Especially if he never delivers the flag many believed the success of this deal would swing on?

Hell no.

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Lance Franklin has been a hit even without a flag for the Swans. Picture: AAP Images

Any way you cut it, Franklin’s recruitment by Sydney has been an unprecedented success.

When Sydney signed Franklin on that nine-year deal it effectively did so aware they would get bang for buck for six or seven years then roll the dice at the end.

If that deal had been for $9 million over six years, it was only what the greatest showman in the modern era deserved.

They smoothed out the dollar value over nine years, but from here on in anything else is gravy.

Franklin has played six completed seasons, been All Australian in four of them, kicked 364 goals, averaged just a tick short of 20 games a year.

The only years he missed All Australian were 2015 (47 goals and mental health issues that restricted him to 17 games) and last year’s 10-game season.

He hasn’t won that flag but in 2014 he kicked 12 goals in three finals including four in the Grand Final and helped them to another decider in 2016.

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In truth the failure of Kurt Tippett to provide a meaningful foil given injuries and modest form despite his exorbitant wage is more to blame.

If the failure to win a flag is the litmus test for champions, a heck of a lot of Hall of Famers and even official Legends fail on that score.

As CEO Tom Harley says, you are only as good as your last game, and for Franklin it was 4.2, 14 touches and 10 marks in his 300th contest.

Now we ride the rollercoaster – Does he see out his contract? Does he get to 1000 goals? – Either way Franklin has already proved himself a Sydney recruiting success story.

Originally published as Lance Franklin’s deal with Sydney stacks up no matter how you look at it, writes Jon Ralph