‘Best thing for me’: Buddy Franklin comes clean on sweet retirement moment

Buddy Franklin has retired as one of the modern greats of the AFL but his final act of a football field nearly didn’t happen.

A day to remember for the Franklin family. Picture: Jonathan Ng

After 19 seasons, two premierships, 354 games and 1066 goals in the AFL, Buddy Franklin more than deserves some down time.

The eight-time All-Australian’s list of accolades in the game is almost too long to mention and he will go down as one of the game’s modern greats.

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But while the name Buddy Franklin will echo down the ages in AFL circles, the quietly spoken 36-year-old appeared to want to leave the game with a minimum of fuss.

After a calf injury ended his career, he didn’t turn up to the press conference announcing his exit from the game, and his Swans coach John Longmire admitted that it was an emotional phone call when Franklin was considering ending his career.

“It certainly sounded like he’d made the call there and then,” Longmire said in the press conference.

“I said, ‘Sleep on it and we’ll get up and have a chat this morning’. I went to his place this morning. He said ‘I’m done. I think the best way to do it is to call it now’.”

While many would expect decisions to end a career such as Franklin’s deserve the fanfare, reports at the time said that he wasn’t even planning to attend a farewell at the SCG to allow Swans fans to say goodbye and thank you for the final time.

But the 36-year-old did attend the game, performing a lap of honour with wife Jesinta and children Tullulah, 3, and Rocky, 2, in emotional scenes in August.

It was a rare scenes as model and 2010 Miss Universe Australia Jesinta is a social media juggernaut with over 371,000 followers on Instagram, but doesn’t share photos of her children.

It was an emotional day for Franklin. Photo by Matt King/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Franklin deserved a huge send off. Photo by Matt King/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Stellar Magazine, Buddy stated that he didn’t want to say goodbye in such a public way but wanted to give his children a memory to treasure.

“Initially (the kids joining in) wasn’t going to happen,” he said.

“And then, obviously, I was a bit overwhelmed by the situation. It was a lot for me mentally and the best thing for me was to be with my family.

“It was a huge decision because we don’t share pictures of our (children’s faces) on Instagram. But the best thing for me and Jesinta and the family was to have (them) out there with me and they definitely helped me through it, that’s for sure.

“I would have really struggled to do it by myself. We made the decision on the morning of the game that they were going to walk the lap with me and I’m so glad and blessed they were given the opportunity.”

Jesinta added: “There was a lot of commentary in the media around him snubbing the game. But I think what a lot of people don’t realise is that Buddy on the football field is quite different to Bud off the football field. He’s extremely humble and doesn’t like anything to be about himself.

“What surprised me was the overwhelming emotion that was felt when we went out there and saw everyone there to appreciate and celebrate Bud. The cutest thing was seeing Rocky in Dad’s arms, really lapping it up and copying Dad with the thumbs up. It was such a special moment for not only the fans, but for the kids and Bud.”

The couple are red carpet regulars. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Franklin’s retirement photo. Photo by Phil Hillyard

It was a wonderful moment for the Franklin family and the last act of Buddy’s career as he skipped the retiring player’s motorcade on Grand Final day.

Since stepping away from the game, the pair and their young family have moved to the Gold Coast and are enjoying a quieter life, which Buddy says is “just beautiful”.

As for next plans, Jesinta revealed the pair’s next move would have “a bit of a give-back element”.

Buddy added: “I’m just enjoying retirement at the moment, just switching off and being with the family. I think that’s the number-one priority. Then once it gets to the new year, I’ll start making decisions on what I want to do.”

Read the full interview here and see their exclusive photo shoot in Stellar Magazine out today in The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (South Australia)