AFL Sydney v St Kilda: Lance Franklin’s 350th match a forgettable night for the Swans

There was no fairytale as St Kilda spoiled Lance Franklin’s 350th game in a Thursday night fizzer. But there was a moment to remember before the bounce.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 08: Lance Franklin of the Swans leads team mates onto the field for his 350th game during the round 13 AFL match between Sydney Swans and St Kilda Saints at Sydney Cricket Ground, on June 08, 2023, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Fortunately Lance Franklin’s highlight reel is already bursting at the seams so there will be no need to add his 350th milestone game.

While the football gods smiled on the Swans champion last year for his fairytale 1000th goal game, they were missing from the SCG on Thursday night as St Kilda broke a long run of losses at the ground to ruin the party.

A couple of goals from six touches was the total of Buddy’s work in the 14-point loss.

The low numbers weren’t entirely the superstar’s fault given for most part it was a horrible game with patches of brain-numbing arm-wrestle football.

Lance Franklin leads his team out onto the ground. Picture: Getty Images

After a scoreless opening quarter from the Swans, Franklin had a bright patch in the second quarter before not touching the ball in the second half.

The last thing he wanted was a guard of honour after such an anti-climatic performance but the St Kilda players lined up so he obliged very much through gritted teeth.

It was almost sad to watch him be embarrassed to be honoured in such a way given the 30,123 fans who came to Thursday night football in Sydney had come wanting to give him a very different reception.

While it didn’t end how Franklin wanted, there was a memorable moment in the pre-game that he will treasure.

He’d tried to play down the milestone in the lead-up but there was a rare show of emotion during his jumper presentation.

With his family, including his parents, wife Jess and two children present, Franklin got teary when he said: “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my … sorry guys, I’m getting a bit emotional … my parents.

“I wouldn’t be here today, play this amount of games. They were the ones that drove me to and from training, dropped me to games at a young age and got me to where I am today.

“To (wife) Jess, my two beautiful kids, you’re the reason I play this great game and still have that passion to get out there and perform each week.”

Sydney coach John Longmire and former Swans teammate turned assistant coach Jarrad McVeigh also addressed the room as did two of his former Hawthorn teammates, Jordan Lewis and Jarryd Roughead, who had flown from Melbourne for the game.

Lewis joked that he never thought his friend would play 350 games.

“I’ll be honest, it’s probably not a milestone we thought you (Franklin) would get to certainly when we first started – he was a bit erratic and unprofessional.”

He then said Franklin would go down as an “icon of the game:”

Franklin geting chaired off by teammates.

“There’s players that come and go, there’s players who you form really great friendships with and there’s also players that you can tell your grandkids you played with them – and I think Buddy you’re one of those players,” Lewis said.

While there may have been tears in the sheds, they were replaced by angry pills when Franklin got out onto the SCG. There was no handshake before the bounce for his opponent Callum Wilkie, instead he wanted to push the Saints full-back around as they waited for the first bounce.

His frustration soon grew as St Kilda coach Ross Lyon lived up to his promise to be a party-pooper. He placed a spare defender, usually it was Dougal Howard, to stand in front of Franklin and Wilkie.

Understandably Franklin’s anger grew as the opening quarter became a typical Lyon-coached arm wrestle. He fluffed his first real chance, an easy chest mark from an Isaac Heeney pass 12 minutes in.

His first mark came five minutes later up on the wing with his first kick a short 15m pass to Harry Cunningham.

A wrestle after getting caught with the ball was all Franklin offered for the rest of the quarter as he spent the final four minutes on the interchange bench.

It was ugly and in the running for one of the worst quarters of the year with the Swans failing to even score from 13 inside 50 entries.

Maybe it was nerves for the big occasion. Let’s put it down to that because Franklin and his teammates were a completely different unit in the second quarter.

Then finally, at the 15-minute mark the moment arrived.

Franklin came in needing one goal to go past Doug Wade and move into fourth position on the all-time AFL goal kicking.

You could have taken short odds he would do it with a one-armed juggling contested mark rather than the traditional two-handed option.

Lance Franklin celebrates goal 1058.

Franklin beat off two Saints to use his right hand to palm it down to his other arm for the mark 45m out. The set shot was a lay-up for Buddy who had his arm up pointing to the sky before the ball had sailed through the middle.

With his little mate Tom Papley kicking his second for the term three minutes later, suddenly the Swans had something resembling a free-flowing game style.

There was definitely an extra level of intent about Franklin who was contesting everything, in the air and on the ground.

This was rewarded at the 23-minute mark when he ran hard back to the goal square to create a rare one-on-one with Wilkie which he won easily, grabbing the ball as it bounced off his opponent’s chest for his second goal from one metre out.

When Sam Wicks kicked the Swans fifth a minute later, the Swans were suddenly 20 points up and flying before two late St Kilda goals put the brakes on.

The less said about the third quarter the better with Franklin not touching the ball as the Saints closed to within six points at the final break.

Longmire hadn’t liked what he saw, relegating the milestone man on the bench to start the last quarter with Joel Amartey, who had been subbed on for the concussed Nick Blakey, sent to the goal square.

That move didn’t work and not much did for the home side who were their own worst enemies handing St Kilda the opening two goals of the final quarter through 50m penalties.

It was a trainwreck for the Swans and as their season dwindled away the air certainly went out of the tyres of the night which was supposed to be celebrating the career of one of the best footballers to have ever played the game.

Franklin doesn’t want to talk about next year but in all likelihood this is it.

During the week he was asked how he wants to be remembered: “(As) someone that had a crack … and just had fun.”

Unfortunately, fun is definitely not something he had on Thursday night.