Tom Lonergan could play final game against long-time rival Lance Franklin
IF THIS is Tom Lonergan’s last game, it’s fitting it will be against Lance Franklin — a player Lonergan has done a better job of stopping than anyone, writes MARK ROBINSON.
Mark Robinson
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AS USUAL it will be Operation Stop Buddy.
And as usual the job will go to Tom Lonergan.
How fitting if Friday night is Lonergan’s final match that it will be against Lance Franklin, the one constant in the epic battles between Geelong and firstly Hawthorn and then Sydney over the past decade.
As a matter of course, after the toss of the coin in the middle of the ground, Franklin will strut into the forward 50m and moments later Lonergan will sidle up, shake hands, lick his fingers and start dancing on his feet, anxious about the contest ahead.
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It might not be the famed Carey v Jakovich contests from the 1990s, which pitted the best centre half-forward against the best centre half-back and which absorbed the football community.
But in the simplest assessment, it’s about one player stopping another.
And Lonergan arguably is the one defender who has had Franklin’s measure throughout their careers.
From 2010 to 2017, Lonergan has played on Franklin 12 times and conceded just 22 goals.
In 38 one-on-one contests in that period, Franklin has won 10, Lonergan 10 and 18 have been neutralised.
Against a player of such immense talent, that is a tick for Lonergan.
Other defenders, including Gold Coast’s Steven May, can be a Buddy stopper.
In their five match-ups, May has conceded just nine goals, according to Champion Data.
In contrast, Port Adelaide’s Alipate Carlisle gave up 20 goals in five games.
Fremantle full-back Luke McPharlin was another who was able to keep Franklin human.
In their six match-ups, Franklin kicked just 13 goals and in their one final opposed to each other — the 2010 elimination final won by Fremantle by 30 points — it was just the two goals from 13 disposals.
In the 2013 Grand Final, which the Hawks won by 15 points, McPharlin and Michael Johnson shared Franklin.
Franklin’s only goal was kicked on McPharlin after receiving a 50-metre penalty.
“I love watching Buddy, he’s a fascinating footballer,” McPharlin told the Herald Sun this week.
Fascinating but not daunting.
McPharlin relied on speed to stay with Franklin on the lead and then tried to body Franklin in marking contests. Under no circumstances could he allow Franklin to spin back towards goal and get the ball over the back.
He said he had more problems with the pack-marking forwards such as Essendon’s Matthew Lloyd and West Coast’s Josh Kennedy.
“Franklin is superb on the lead and around the stoppages,” he said. “You had to use body work with Buddy.”
Franklin — who, perhaps surprisingly, ran fifth behind Dustin Martin, Patrick Dangerfield, Josh Kelly and Rory Sloane in the AFLPA MVP voting on Tuesday night — arguably is in his best form since the 2008 season.
He’s kicked 73.57 and taken 154 marks, just four marks fewer than is career-best tally of 158 in 2008.
Unlike McPharlin, who liked to use his speed against Franklin, Lonergan is not super quick but he is canny with the use of his body.
He beats Franklin with determination and defensive nous and, it must be said, with a little help from his teammates.
Cats coach Chris Scott told the Herald Sun last year: “(Lonergan has) done as good a job as anyone I’ve seen on Buddy, but we’re all well aware how difficult that is and what a trap it is to say, ‘I’m a good match-up for this guy’,” Scott said.
“It’s a bit like Cyril Rioli — there are no good match-ups for those guys when they turn it on.”
Lonergan began his career as just another young, aspiring backman against Franklin and told colleague Scott Gullan last year he felt in the early days Franklin gave him a kind of ‘Who are you?’ attitude.
“His chest was out and I appreciated that. I thought, ‘That’s fair enough given what you have done and what you can do’,” Lonergan said.
“But I was like, ‘I’m going to beat you. I have full confidence that if I’m not going to beat you, I’m going to make it hard for you’.
“From then on I’ve just kept that attitude.”
It’s worked.
“He’s certainly a guy I love playing on,” Lonergan once said.
“He’s probably the best forward in the competition and has been for a long period.’’
No much has changed. Franklin is still the most devastating key forward in the game and Lonergan has maintained the best record of any defender to play on Franklin.
Tonight, they’ll shake hands, Lonergan will lick his fingers and start dancing on his feet, anxious about the contest ahead.
It will be match-up No. 13 and possibly, at age 33, his most important.
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