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

READ PART I: THE BRAINS BEHIND THE BUDDY DEAL

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.

In part one we covered how “Buddy” falling for Sydney-based model Jesinta Campbell was a big part of his desire to relocate north of the Victoria border.

There were the secret meetings with Lance Franklin, manager Liam Pickering and Swans CEO Andrew Ireland, speculation he was bound for the Giants and then the ruthless plan to pull off a coup.

So what happened next?

SHADOW BOXING

It is the middle of winter, but the rumour mill is piping hot.

Everywhere you look you get another version of events as to where Franklin will be playing footy in 2014.

“From the time we did the medical in the middle of the year I thought if Lance was going to leave Hawthorn he would come to the Swans, but you’re never certain,” Ireland says.

Giants chief executive David Matthews said: “We thought he was either going to stay at Hawthorn or come to the Giants.”

And Hawthorn? “The feedback I’m getting from the playing group is that he will stay,” Hawks president Andrew Newbold says.

By July, Franklin is mulling over three offers.

But the Hawks have just about had enough. They set a deadline in July for an answer.

“That wasn’t to say we couldn’t re-do it, but they said: ‘We’re going to start signing other blokes who are out of contract’,” Pickering says.

“We’d been pretty transparent with Hawthorn and Graham Wright had been good to deal with. He was like, ‘This is our offer’ which wasn’t insignificant, but we’re not talking as long a term … and it got to the stage where they had to move on.

“Bud was very much, ‘I don’t want you to say anything’.”

By now, GWS coach Leon Cameron is calling Franklin direct, given the pair had worked together at Hawthorn only nine months earlier.

Asked if Franklin ever committed to the Giants, Pickering says: “Not with me he didn’t. And I certainly didn’t on his behalf. I’m not sure what he was saying to them directly.”

HAWKS CLUELESS ABOUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN

While the Hawks top brass are in the dark, the players are clueless too.

“I was never that close with ‘Bud’ anyhow, but my recollection was we genuinely didn’t know which way it was going to go. The impression we got from him was that he didn’t know either,” teammate Brad Sewell says.

“For us it was really none of our business. Gary Ablett had moved a couple of years prior and Geelong won the flag the next year, so the way it was prefaced was that it was a win-win.

“Clubs largely become a sanctuary for these kinds of things while everything gets written and said on the outside.”

By August, there is plenty happening on the “outside”. It’s speculation of wildfire proportions.

Pickering does an interview for SEN when all the behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Swans appear to catch up with him.

Pickering this week described the slip of the tongue a “legitimate mistake”, but admitted the need for secrecy was draining.

“It was worse than the Gary Ablett move, purely because Gary was going to a new club. There was obviously Geelong, but there was no other talk of anyone else outside of the Suns and Cats,” he says.

“With Buddy it was bizarre. I’m sitting next to ‘Hutchy’ (Craig Hutchison) every Saturday morning on radio … my brother in law is a journalist, Rob Waters, but there’s an element of confidentiality.

“My business partner James (Pitcher) and I were the only ones in our office who knew. None of my family and friends knew.

“If someone had really put it hard to me on the spot about the Swans then I would have needed to be evasive, but no one asked the question.”

LOSE ON FIELD, WIN OFF IT

Sydney have just been belted by the Hawks in the first qualifying final - with Franklin out suspended - but they’ve discovered they have had an enormous win off the field.

The Swans had unofficially floated their mega offer across Ireland’s lounge suite at the beginning of the year, but now it has landed in all its official and detailed glory.

Nine years, $10 million and heavily backended.

“Obviously his priority was winning a flag for the Hawks, but I’d taken it to Buddy and Buddy accepted it. That was during the finals,” Pickering says.

“His choice was always going to be playing at the SCG with an established team rather than western Sydney with a developing team, given his age and all that stuff.

“He was adamant. He was so strong on it that that’s what he wanted to do. I was doubting he’d hold his nerve on it, given his love for the club (Hawthorn) and his mates.

“There had still been no mention of the Swans (in the media).”

The Hawks never look like losing the 2013 Grand Final against Fremantle. Franklin is solid, without being spectacular, in winning his second flag.

But he is about to make a different sort of splash.

THE PHONE CALLS

Franklin and his Hawthorn teammates are been feted on stage like rockstars at Glenferrie Oval in front of thousands of fans. It’s the day after the club secured its 11th flag.

But more than 1800km north in Noosa, GWS chief executive Dave Matthews isn’t jovial. He’s worried.

“I was on a family holiday, although you’re never really on a holiday … and I phoned ‘Gubby’ and said: ‘Are you hearing the Swans are in?’” Matthews says.

“Gubby has seen just about everything in the industry and you ask him: ‘Is this possible?’ and he’s like, ‘No, no, no. There’s not a way they can construct it’.

“But they did construct it and they went long on him.”

Matthews remembers calling Pickering, Pickering remembers calling Matthews.

Whoever picks up the phone that Tuesday, their exchange is fiery.

“No doubt we had some interesting things to say to each other,” Matthews says.

Pickering said: “I told him Buddy wouldn’t be playing for the Giants.

“He was really pissed off. I said to him, ‘Can you not put anything out?’ and they said ‘Stuff him’ and basically put their press release out before we were able to say anything.

“But I was able to call Hawthorn, at least.”

In that call, Hawks football manager Graham Wright is stunned first, furious second.

“I said: ‘He’s going to go to the Swans, mate’. He wasn’t happy, he was angry and pissed off too,” Pickering says.

“Not that I got involved with any of that because it had nothing to do with me or Bud.”

Contacted by the Herald Sun as part of this series, Wright didn’t want to comment, only saying: “We were very disappointed to lose him, but that’s free agency. He’ll always be a much-loved and admired great of our club, as he is in Sydney.”

The GWS tweet lands at 12.23pm on Tuesday, shortly after the Pickering-Matthews phone call.

“The GIANTS have withdrawn their offer to Buddy Franklin based on advice that he will accept an offer from the Swans”.

READ PART I: THE BRAINS BEHIND THE BUDDY DEAL