AFL 2021: The magic of Sydney Swans champion Lance Franklin and how long it could go on for
Lance Franklin has defied the critics who scoffed when he signed that mega deal. Jon Ralph looks at how and why he could even play on past 2022.
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Lance Franklin’s regular inside joke with Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham would have represented gallows humour at any other stage of the past two years.
As Franklin battled a string of soft-tissue injuries that jeopardised his career, and saw some critics tarnishing his legacy, he never stopped believing.
Pridham is the fabulously wealthy investment banker recognised for his service and philanthropy with an Order of Australia, and Franklin is the cheeky Sydney superstar renowned for his on-field gifts.
But whenever they cross paths, they settle into a familiar pattern which includes Franklin’s go-to line.
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“He always jokes that he is expecting to sit down soon and talk about contract extensions. I am sure he wouldn’t even want to be paid,” says Pridham when the Herald Sun catches him in Palm Cove this week as Sydney escapes lockdown Victoria.
“I get on really well with Lance. When you are the chairman of the club you are not out wining and dining together, but I have got a lot of respect for him.”
Then comes the kicker that shows Pridham is deadly serious.
“I have got no doubt we will be sitting down to discuss an extension. I think as long as he has got the desire and can stay fit, I think he can keep going (past 2022).
“He is just unbelievably athletic. There is that growing feeling just looking at him out there on the field. Even if he has a quiet game, he is just very influential on the outcome.”
Franklin, resident AFL superstar, will on Sunday defiantly play his 313th AFL game as he closes in on his 1000th AFL goal - he needs 23 more.
He has defied father time, he has defied his own body and defied that shrinking band of critics who scoffed when he signed that nine-year, $10 million bombshell deal.
The former Hawk has outlasted every other player from his draft class, a significant achievement when so many key-position forwards of his ilk hit the wall at 30 years of age.
Remarkably, given his recent ailments, Franklin is about to play his 10th game in a row, and still cranking out beautiful numbers — 2.8 goals a game, a dozen possessions, 6.5 score assists.
We still don’t know the real Lance Franklin, even as he morphs into a family man with wife Jesinta and young children Tullulah and Rocky.
Franklin could be having the last laugh on all those that doubted him in a year he is due $1.5 million — the eighth season of a nine-year deal.
Instead, he is too busy proving to his teammates how invested he is, how keen he is to teach them, how determined he is to enjoy his final years in football.
The Buddy system
Key-forward turned centre-half-back Tom McCartin has lost his place as Franklin’s favourite pupil after becoming a reborn defender, but says the time the players spent in last year’s lockdown with the 34-year-old champion was a watershed period.
“He was great in the hub. He has a lot of connections with a lot of boys and we got to see the other side of him,” McCartin said.
“At times it was tough for the older boys with their families but looking back it was a great experience.
“I guess you weren’t forced to spend time together but the good thing about our club is that everyone embraced it. It was really great.
“We just enjoyed each other’s company so it’s made us all closer.
“He has always been a really humble guy, he loves teaching the young boys stuff and he juts goes about his business but he’s just a genuine guy.”
Is it true he has been dropped as Buddy’s pupil for first-year tall Logan McDonald?
“Yeah, pretty much,” McCartin laughs.
“He is onto Logan now, but he loves teaching us little stuff. He’s so good to have around the club.”
The superstar forward had so many reasons not to travel to Perth with the team last year for a late-season hub when his season was already over due to hamstring, calf and groin issues.
But coach John Longmire said in March that was not Buddy’s way
“He goes into the hub the whole time, he has just had a baby, Jess had another on the way, he can’t play, he is still invested, forms great relationships with kids and young fellas,” Longmire said.
“Then he didn’t go away anywhere, works through the off-season, works through Christmas, so in the end he’s got a lot to give.”
For Tom Papley it was the little things in the hub that made the difference — epic games of ping pong as the goal sneak, Franklin and Justin McInerney formed a little posse.
“A couple of years ago, definitely in my first year, I was timid around him,” Papley said.
“I was still starstruck. But off the field in the hub, me and Justin McInerney and a few guys formed a really close relationship with him.
“He would have found it hard being away from his family but he bonded with everyone.
“With him not playing, he could have easily got on the plane and instead he stayed with us and supported us. We played (ping pong) every night and he was always there.”
Former teammate Jarrod McVeigh was the single player entrusted with the secret in July 2013 when CEO Andrew Ireland asked the Swans captain if the playing group would support Franklin’s recruitment.
Of course he gave the green light to the exercise, and eight years later is still in awe of Franklin’s contribution.
“Initially you are thinking, ‘Wow, this guy wants to come to the footy club instead of our bigger rivals? But you are not going to say no, are you’?” McVeigh said.
“It was an easy decision and we have got more than we hoped for.
“We didn’t get the premiership (together as players) but what he has brought to our club and state and fans, it has well and truly exceeded our expectations.
“Last year he didn’t even have to come to the hub and the fact he wanted to be part of it meant a lot to the players.
“He has been around for a long time and he’s a quiet and shy guy, but once you get to know him as the young boys did, he is one of the boys.
“He wasn’t even training as well, which was even harder for him.
“And seeing the boys train and play when you can’t do it and you don’t have your family as well, it would have been doubly hard.”
Worth every cent
Nothing changed this year when the Swans were moved out of locked down Sydney, even if Franklin had every reason to remain at home, given Jesinta gave birth to Rocky only on the eve of the season.
Last weekend, 1970 Brownlow medallist and five-time best-and-fairest winner Peter Bedford was among a group of South Melbourne stars including Bobby Skilton who spoke to the Swans about the club’s Melbourne heritage.
He said Franklin should dare to dream about achieving the elusive premiership at Sydney but had proved himself worthy time and again in red-and-white colours.
“He was great. He came up after the chat and shook my hand and said he had really enjoyed it,” Bedford said this week.
“I don’t know him well but to have played so many consecutive games this year is just a testament to the way he’s gone about it.
“That is the great part about him, the way the young fellas see him going about it.
“Sunday wasn’t one of his best games, but just the way he threw himself into the contest.
“For the other players to see a bloke of his stature really willing the side to perform, it just creates great spirit for the group.
“He kicked a goal after missing a couple of set shots and when he got it he was pumping his fists and it just rubs off. He’s been fantastic for the club since he’s got there.”
Bedford said it was no secret the brilliant young stars in the Sydney side such as Braeden Campbell and Errol Gulden gravitated back to footy despite playing three or four sports through their childhood given the inspiration Franklin provided.
For Pridham — Sydney’s chairman in the most competitive sporting landscape in the world — there was only one way to quantify the club’s investment in Franklin.
“It is a question everyone asks and there is no simple answer to it,” Pridham said.
“But you look at the membership and crowd numbers, the excitement factor, the halo effect a marquee player like a once-in-a-generation player provides like Buddy or Plugger (Tony Lockett) or Warwick Capper. It leads to so many positive outcomes financially and culturally.
“It’s a complex equation but I think the simplest question is: ‘If you had your time again would you do it again?’ And the answer is ‘yes’ in a heartbeat.”
Back on top
Franklin’s footballing renaissance was no secret inside the Sydney rooms — even if the durability surprised Longmire.
Franklin followed McVeigh’s advice: “You need to keep training because when you stop, you are done.”
He had a huge pre-season program of gym work to strengthen his core.
And when he is on the park, it is not just the heroic goals, but the little things that make all the difference.
“That has been a big emphasis since the start of the year with the forward group,” McVeigh said.
“You look at Richmond and how unselfish they are and how they are happy for a teammate to kick a goal and we made it one of our biggest focuses.
“If you are not going that well, talk to each other and get each other into the game.
“He has a great eye for that and when he does it we blow that stuff up in lights.”
Franklin will inevitably become the sixth AFL figure to reach 1000 goals — and make him an automatic AFL Legend in the future — even if there are setbacks along the way.
Anthony Hudson has been an essential part of the soundtrack to Franklin’s career.
The Herald Sun finds Hudson while he stocks up in the supermarket on the first day of lockdown.
It begs the question: how often does football’s best caller get wags on the street yelling, “Thirteeeen” after his famous call of Franklin’s 13 goals in Round 10, 2012.
He says with a laugh: “I do get it but not that often. Like Bruce McAvaney said when Tony Lockett broke the (AFL) record, you do feel privileged to be a part of it.
“It’s genuinely how you feel when you commentate on one of Buddy’s games.”
Hudson was calling his surging run ahead of Cale Hooker on radio — Dennis Cometti provided the TV commentary — but said performances such as Franklin’s five goals on a wet track in his first year for the Swans still stick in the mind.
For Hudson, the way he plays the game is part of the delight of describing it.
“From a commentary point of view it is the players who have the crowd holding their breath when they go near the ball, they know they could be capable of something amazing,” he said.
“In Buddy’s case he actually holds onto the ball for a long time.
“The high-marking players are great, but he picks up the ball and moves and baulks and it allows you to build to that climax.
“I just can’t remember another tall player being able to do that. He has just had the ability to be in the big moments so many times. And to have the individual patches of brilliance when a game doesn’t have a lot going for it.
“When he was at his peak and you know you were doing a Buddy game, it was almost a challenge to hold back.
“You were in danger of going over the top because you were just so excited to be there.”
Has he even considered what it would be like to call that 1000th goal?
“I think we have just about exhausted all of the Buddy lines,” he said.
“I am not sure I have got any left in me. I must admit I have looked ahead and I wonder when it’s going to be. Have you got any suggestions?’’
Footy doles out cruelty and heartbreak in bigger doses than fairytales, but Franklin’s premiership hopes are not yet done.
If he can hang on long enough as Sydney charges into the premiership window, McVeigh says there is no reason he can’t secure the flag that eluded them in 2013 and 2016.
“The way these guys are going at the moment, we are in good form and it would take a lot but we are giving him a chance,” McVeigh said.
“We are bringing the kid through and for him and Joey (Josh Kennedy), they want one more, so we will do whatever we can to get it for them.”
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