Sydney forward Lance Franklin in doubt for blockbuster against Hawthorn

SYDNEY has revealed Lance Franklin is under an injury cloud for Saturday night’s blockbuster against Hawthorn, which has come after the superstar forward drew comparisons with the game’s greatest players.

Lance Franklin is benefiting from greater time on the training track. Picture. Phil Hillyard

SYDNEY has revealed superstar forward Lance Franklin is under an injury cloud for Saturday night’s blockbuster against Hawthorn.

Reports emerged on Monday night that Franklin had pulled up sore from his matchwinning five-goal haul against Greater Western Sydney and will be racing the clock to face his former club at the SCG.

The timing could not be worse for the Swans, who are on a Franklin-led three-match winning streak, with a top-four spot on the line.

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Franklin left Spotless Stadium in the final minutes with a groin complaint and took little part in yesterday touch and recovery session.

“He’s a little bit sore. He will be given every chance and has shown he can get through,” Swans football boss Tom Harley told Channel 7.

The news came after Sydney revealed a greater training load was behind Franklin’s blistering late-season form.

Harley said Franklin could be ­entering the “rarefied air” of the highest goalkicker in the game’s history, Tony Lockett.

Franklin, 31, has kicked 15 goals in the past four weeks.

Harley said Franklin was hampered by an inability to train for much of the season.

Lance Franklin at Swans recovery on Monday ahead of Sydney’s huge clash with Hawthorn this week. Picture. Phil Hillyard

“A lot of it comes down to conditioning and the amount of work he can do during the week,” Harley said.

“No one in this game is in the space of excuses, but the Essendon game (in Round 19) was back-to-back six-day breaks and then we had an eight-day break going into the following game against Collingwood.

“Lance was able to get a bit further conditioning and another seven-day break and he had a bit more again.

“Players are that finetuned now … he’s been the benefactor of just getting a little bit more work done during the week if we’ve got the seven or eight-day break.”

The Swans have a week between their final two home and away games.

Sydney coach John Longmire said last month that Franklin had trained for a total of only 20 minutes this season, due partly to the heel injury he suffered in Round 1.

Harley said Franklin’s competitiveness was a vital asset for the Swans as they prepare to launch an assault on the finals.  

“He’s had a good couple of weeks for us,” he said on SEN.

“John Longmire summed it up pretty well in the post-match, I thought, that what you don’t see from afar, that you do see up close, is how competitive he is and how much he loves to play in the big moments and the big games.”

Harley said the Swans hoped to see Sam Reid back to support Franklin, potentially in the finals.

In-form Hawks defender Ben Stratton is likely to get the job on the four-time Coleman medallist in a game Harley said had a “clear-cut” prize on the line.

“Sydney-Hawthorn games over the best part of a decade have been must-watch footy,” he said.

Buddy Franklin with former teammate Ben Stratton, who may take the job on the Swans star this weekend.

“I don’t expect Saturday night to be any different.”

Ex-Saints captain Danny Frawley said he still considered Lockett to be the best player he had ever seen but that Franklin was “poking his head into that atmosphere”.

“He’s getting into rarefied air,” he said on SEN.

“He is getting into Jason Dunstall area, he is getting into Gary Ablett Sr area and Wayne Carey area, and dare I say it, Tony Lockett’s sort of stratosphere.

“Is he right in there now as equals? I’m still a no, but he is starting to enter that atmosphere, he is just poking his head into that atmosphere where you think, no one is going to get near those guys, they’re absolute freaks.

“I talk of Carey, Dunstall, Lockett and Ablett for all the right reasons.

“Of the contemporaries right now … I think Franklin is going to be measured in that same vein when he retires. I think sometimes we take it for granted.”

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