If Bruce Reynolds was the brains behind the Great Train Robbery of 1963, Andrew Ireland was the architect behind Sydney’s stunning Lance Franklin recruiting coup of 2013.

The then-Swans chief executive was way ahead of the game when he asked the question of Franklin’s manager Liam Pickering during the 2012 season — more than a year before “Buddy” stunned the footy world by leaving Hawthorn.

Of course, this was no robbery. It can’t be theft when the bounty — Franklin — wants to play for you. But it’s the fact Franklin was willing to do the unthinkable and walk out on the Hawks for Sydney that makes this genius.

You see, Buddy was supposed to be a Giant. That’s what every water cooler, front bar and schoolyard conversation revolved around when Franklin put contract talks on hold with the Hawks at the start of 2013.

PART II: Secret meetings and GWS bombshell

PART III: AFL fury at Swans secret deal

Here was a man who had everything he wanted at Hawthorn. Two flags, four All-Australians, two Coleman medals and at only 26, he was the superstar centrepiece in a side locked into premiership contention.

The AFL introduced free agency at the end of the 2012 season, but it was inconceivable Franklin would want out and that’s why it remains our game’s biggest player move.

Only Ron Barassi’s switch from Melbourne to Carlton for the 1965 season can be considered its equal.

How the Swans were able to pull it all off in secrecy and pull the wool over everyone’s eyes in the process, forever cements its place in VFL/AFL history.

“WE KNEW LANCE WAS SEEING JESINTA”

Lance Franklin is the king of the AFL world when he sets his sights on Miss Universe.

It’s 2012 and “Buddy” has fallen for Sydney-based model Jesinta Campbell. Between kicking bags for the Hawks, Franklin is jetting north as romance blossoms.

While the AFL’s reigning Coleman Medallist and All-Australian is slipping through Sydney with a bit more anonymity than Melbourne, word is quietly getting around the Harbour City.

Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland is catching up with player agent — and Franklin’s manager — Liam Pickering, when he throws out the Hail Mary.

“We knew he was contracted for another couple of years and wouldn’t be a free agent until that time, but like a lot of things, you raise them because you think there’s an outside chance down the line.”

Pickering’s response is blunt.

“I think he’s pretty happy where he is, mate’,” Pickering says.

“At that stage I had no awareness that he was looking for a move. I didn’t rush out and ring Buddy. I mentioned it when we next caught up and told him the Swans had asked, but there wasn’t any follow-up on it.”

Ireland’s is only a comment in passing, but the seed has been planted. It soon grows.

“WHY ARE THEY SIGNING TIPPETT?”

THE Kurt Tippett headlines are dominating the newspapers of late 2012.

Sydney has just beaten Hawthorn to the flag, but Tippett’s proposed trade to the premier has been blocked by the AFL amid Adelaide’s salary cap breaches.

The Crows are stripped of draft picks and fined. Tippett is banned for 11 games and fined. Yet the Swans still pick him in the pre-season draft on December 11.

Pickering’s phone buzzes. It’s Franklin.

“Why are they signing him?” his text message reads.

“Bud’ must have remembered the Ireland conversation and said: ‘What are they doing here?’ Pickering says.

“I said: ‘What, you’ve got some interest? You never told me that. If you want to go there it’s going to be hard now.”

Pickering’s next move is to call Swans coach John Longmire — a former North Melbourne teammate, the man he was best man for at his wedding and a client.

“Look, Bud is asking about it,” Pickering tells him.

Ireland had thrown the bait. Now, with Sydney still basking in the glow of its fifth premiership, he’s got the nibble he was hoping for.

“We knew we had a group in ‘Goodesy’ (Adam Goodes), (Ryan) O’Keefe and those important contributors who were getting towards the end,” Ireland says.

“Whilst we subsequently recruited Kurt Tippett, when Liam (Pickering) rings and says arguably the best player in the competition might be interested you’d be silly not to consider how you might do that.”

“WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO MOVE TO SYDNEY?”

Hawthorn has been back in training for two months, but Franklin’s mind has been running for a while.

It’s the first week of 2013 and the Hawks are on their Christmas break. Franklin is with Jesinta in Sydney and Pickering is up there too, for the Sydney Test match.

The time has come.

Pickering and Franklin go to the sprawling Centennial Park home owned by Ireland and his wife Kelly, with Longmire also attending the top-secret meeting.

“My wife was sworn to secrecy and she’s proven to be a vault,” Ireland laughs.

Kelly’s baking goes down well, there’s coffee and tea and the conversation is light. Then Ireland and Longmire cut to the chase.

“They said: ‘Look, if we were able to pull it off, would you be willing to move to Sydney and Buddy said ‘Yes I would be’,” Pickering says.

It was here that the Swans contract that would shock the footy world nine months later is raised.

“One of the things we recognised from the start was it needed to be a long-term contract and we still had the core of the 2012 premiership that weren’t going to be retiring tomorrow and that we didn’t want to kick out,” Ireland says.

“We needed to be a bit light-on in the early years so it was always going to be a long-term deal to get to the dollars. Because of how light it was going to be in the early years you couldn’t make it up over a couple of years on a shorter deal.

“But the actual capacity to do it relied on Lance thinking he could play the nine years and what became clear in discussions was his passion for the game and his want to play and the belief he could play out that period.”

Barely a month later Franklin shocks the football world and upsets the Hawks by announcing he’s putting contract talks on hold until the end of the season.

“The club and its members must be prepared to acknowledge this situation is part of a new football landscape under free agency,” Hawthorn chief executive Stuart Fox says.

It is game on.

HERE COME THE GIANTS

Franklin’s revelation he would delay contract talks with the Hawks triggers an avalanche of speculation that Greater Western Sydney is perfectly poised to hook footy’s biggest fish.

Gold Coast had prized Gary Ablett out of Geelong and the Giants have a huge pit of cash to do the same with Franklin ahead of their third season.

GWS, with list manager Stephen Silvagni, football manager Gubby Allan and chief executive David Matthews behind the wheel, get to work.

The Giants don’t know it yet, but the Swans have already done a lot of groundwork and in the race for Buddy they are already rounding the first bend of the Wooing Stakes.

But the AFL’s newest club are out of the gates.

“We’d said it would have been remiss of us to not inquire about what he was intending to do and if he’s open to a move, a player of that quality and profile would be someone the Giants needed to pursue,” Matthews says.

“If one of the better players in the game is potentially on the move then the Giants being the young club we were at the time had to be in there.”

SWORN TO SECRECY

Hawthorn had the bye in Round 11, Sydney had the week off in Round 12 and the GWS bye came in Round 13.

But for Franklin, there is little rest.

With Hawthorn on top of the ladder and in flag mode, Franklin is meeting the Swans and the Giants in a mid-year medical and interview blitz.

GWS make their pitch at Silvagni’s Balwyn North mansion. Coach Leon Cameron, Matthews and Allan are walking Franklin through their vision on a June day in 2013.

“I must have been away. Bud went on his own because I remember him telling me what a beautiful house SOS had,” Pickering says.

Matthews said: “We just talked about the direction of the club and the list. He’s a very, very good student of the game, he knows what the competition looks like and knew how our list was shaping up.

Meanwhile, the need-to-know group at the Swans is getting bigger.

Chairman Richard Colless, chairman-in-waiting Andrew Pridham, head of audit and risk Andrew McMaster, board member Jason Ball and football manager Dean Moore are now aware their club is attempting footy’s grandest heist. Co-captain Jarrad McVeigh is also sought out for his blessing, which he gives.

A major meeting is called. The Swans need to decide if they’re all-in.

“We had a list of all the pros and cons and Dean Moore, who is also a trained accountant, had done a lot of work on the value of the contract, the likely increase in the CBA and what the contract would look like down the track. We had a lot of information to make the call,” Ireland says.

But the long discussion isn’t all about economics. Some at the table are aware that pulling off such a ruthless poaching is going to expose them to criticism.

“I remember chatting along the lines of, ‘A lot of people say we’re everyone’s second team, but doing this we’re probably going to put ourselves in a situation where there might be a lot of people who won’t like us’,” Ireland said.

“We were conscious it was going to be a big thing and would change the way the club was viewed. But in some ways other clubs who get to this stage are probably among the bigger in the competition.”

Franklin returns to Ireland’s house over the bye period for more talks and to complete a medical.

It’s enough for the whispers to reach Sydney’s west that the Swans are into Franklin. The Giants dismiss them as fantasy.

“We’d heard the odd rumour, but at the time we probably were of the view that the Swans had a full cap and that it would be difficult for them to do anything,” Matthews says.

“We dismissed it as a possibility.”

Don’t miss parts II and III Wednesday and Thursday on www.heraldsun.com.au