Lance Franklin still worth every penny despite predictions he would decline, says Jon Ralph
LANCE Franklin turned 30 on Monday, a time some predicted he would be on the decline. Instead he remains the game’s most dynamic forward, writes Jon Ralph.
Sydney
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LANCE Franklin turned 30 on Monday.
Which is about the time some predicted he would be only able to train with the aid of a walking stick or wheelchair.
Instead Franklin remains the game’s most dynamic forward and marketable property, at the peak of his powers despite that significant age milestone.
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Franklin, due to be paid the entirely reasonable sum of $1.2 million this year, is a third of the way through a contract he will likely never complete.
Yet what is becoming increasingly apparent is that the club’s decision to lure Franklin on a nine-year $10 million deal is a justifiable masterstroke.
It might have cost them their COLA allowance and forced several depth players out of the club but Franklin could scarcely have done any more to propel them towards the multiple premierships the commentariat said he needed to justify the move.
And he is playing with such authority and athleticism that it is impossible to think he won’t be at the peak of his powers for another three seasons.
Even if he retires at that point, leaving the Swans with his wage bill for three more years, he will have averaged $1.7 million over his six completed seasons.
For a player who remains the complete package — he kicks goals, he drags patrons through the gate, he makes the Swans a bone fide Sydney presence — it is clearly bang for buck.
The fear was that by 30 — an age when most power forwards are already on the wane — Franklin would already be banged up and considering retirement.
It doesn’t seem close to happening.
Sydney’s heist back in 2013 was complicated by three factors removed from their simple decision to actually go after the game’s best player.
They had stolen him from little brother GWS, they had used COLA cash to go after rival stars and Franklin’s management had approached the Swans a full 12 months early.
AFL commission boss Mike Fitzpatrick turned profane, unleashing a poisonous and regrettable spray against Sydney president Richard Colless.
And while the Swans were forced to jettison Shane Mumford, Andrejs Everitt and Jed Lamb, it also forced them to pump games into the likes of Aliir Aliir, Dane Rampe and Sam Naismith.
In Franklin’s first season he kicked a league-high 79 goals including three in the qualifying final, five in the prelim and four in the losing Grand Final.
In 2015, mental illness hit as Franklin failed to play finals after 49 goals in 17 matches.
Last year he trailed only Josh Kennedy (82 goals to his 81), kicking seven finals goals despite a one-goal Grand Final impacted by ankle and shoulder concerns.
He hasn’t got them the flags they wanted, but in those three years he has led the league in shots at goals and scoreboard impact, kicked the second-most goals and had the third-most score involvements.
If there is a criticism of Sydney’s Bondi Billionaires it is Tippett’s output despite an initial contract worth $900,000 a year.
He was 43rd in the Herald Sun’s depth chart after last year’s Grand Final loss and 26th in the 2014 Grand Final after just one goal in those two contests.
With Franklin leading the forward line, the game’s best quartet of midfielders and emerging stars in Aliir, Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills, Sydney’s window remains wide open.
Franklin might never win that flag for Sydney but wisdom is unquestioned in hindsight.
By the time the salary cap explodes in the next six years, Franklin will be worth every dollar paid him regardless of the final three years of his deal.
LANCE FRANKLIN’S PAY OVER THE LIFE OF HIS NINE-YEAR CONTRACT
2014: $700,000
2015: $700,000
2016: $1.2 million
2017: $1.2 million
2018: $1.2 million
2019: $1.3 million
2020: $1.4 million
2021: $1.5 million
2022: $1 million
Originally published as Lance Franklin still worth every penny despite predictions he would decline, says Jon Ralph
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