‘There haven’t been many Lance Franklins’: Post-Buddy Swans primed to kick on

Sydney Swans chief executive Tom Harley is constantly reminded about significant anniversaries as he makes his way to work at Moore Park before another AFL season.

En route to his office, he walks past the slick foyer of the Swans’ training base that tells the history of the club, from its humble beginnings 150 years ago in South Melbourne to the modern club of today in Sydney where he will begin his 10th year, after originally joining as the club’s head of football.

History matters deeply to Harley – behind his desk is a large, intricate painting of club champion Adam Goodes – but equally, so does the future.

Just below his office, excited fans gather for the club’s first pre-season hit-out against crosstown rivals the Giants in blazing sunshine, a visual reminder of the expectation and hope that comes just before the first siren of the season.

Harley has the rare luxury of an opening round in Sydney to look forward to, hosting Melbourne at the SCG in front of an expected capacity crowd on March 7. It will also be the first season in a decade without Lance Franklin and his unique ability to drive fans through the turnstiles. Does the lack of such a marquee player concern him?

“Specific to Lance, I think the first thing to know, and it was before I started [at the Swans], he was recruited to contribute on-field and he single-handedly won us games and obviously got us to grand finals as part of a team,” Harley says.

“And the other thing is, he’s generational, there’s not many of them around, there are not many of them around now. I’ll just suggest there are probably none, but over the journey, there haven’t been many Lance Franklins.

“But why I’m really bullish about our prospects off the field with the playing groups that we’ve got, both men and women, is we’re really starting to bear the fruits of the game and the club’s investment in AFL footy in Sydney.

“We’ve got a base of really good high-level AFL-calibre players who have come from Sydney and it just provides opportunities, also, for other players to shine. I know that we’ve got a very appealing playing roster and some of those guys, if they’re not already, will become household names.”

Sydney Swans CEO Tom Harley looks forward to another season.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Harley can boast an outstanding list of academy graduates in his playing roster, including club champion Errol Gulden, captain Callum Mills, star defender Nick Blakey and stalwart Isaac Heeney.

The Swans also have recruited strongly, with former Melbourne ruckman Brodie Grundy the pick of the bunch. He strongly disagrees with the idea that Sydney fans need the razzmatazz of an icon like Franklin to get them out to the SCG.

“I think it’s unfair to say that and cast those aspersions to our membership base,” Harley says.

“I think they are absolutely rusted on, invested, and our players know it. Callum Mills spoke about that at the guernsey presentation on Wednesday night, as did our senior coach, John Longmire, on how they see our members, they hear our members and they feel our members, and that’s through the good and the bad.”

Harley’s life in AFL, from two-time premiership captain to CEO

• Drafted by Port Adelaide in 1997, but struggled to make an impact, playing one AFL game;
• Moved to Geelong, played 197 games as a defender and was a two-time premiership-winning captain (2007 and 2009);
• After retirement in 2009, worked as a broadcaster and a consultant for the AFL on the then-planned Greater Western Sydney Giants;
• Led the AFL in NSW and ACT as general manager from 2011 until late 2013;
• Joined the Sydney Swans as head of football in 2014;
• Appointed as Swans CEO in 2019, overseeing record membership numbers;
• In Harley’s time at the club, the Swans have lost the 2014, 2016 and 2022 grand finals.

Harley has worked in the AFL industry solidly for 27 years, firstly as a raw draftee at Port Adelaide, then a two-time premiership-winning captain at Geelong, before latterly finding success as an administrator at the Swans. He describes it as a “charmed run” in a game he still loves.

He has lived in Sydney for 15 years and is fully settled into the busy rhythms of its life with a young family, but can also remember his feelings as a player and his misconceptions about the strength of the game in the Harbour City.

Harley won two premierships as captain of Geelong.Credit: The Slattery Media Group

“Unless you’re in the market, you don’t know it and so I had all of the assumptions that everyone else makes about the state of the game in NSW, and I guess the Swans as well,” Harley says.

“I think one of the things that the club has done really well – well before my time – was to have a deep willingness to form a deep understanding of the sporting landscape. There’s a high element of respect that needs to come along with that and understanding that it’s very cluttered and it’s very competitive, but we [all codes] can all coexist at the same time.”

The NRL now claims to be Australia’s most watched game, ahead of the AFL, while the AFL has returned serve, by announcing that it will invest $1 billion to generate one million participants across the country. Harley understands the fierce competition for new members in Sydney, and believes the Swans are strongly placed to attract them.

“We’re a big international city and I absolutely concur with [former Swans chair] Richard Colless, it is the most competitive football city in the world,” Harley says.

“From an AFL point of view, it’s making sure that the game is accessible to fans, members and players, too, to the very diverse community that Sydney belongs to, and importantly, harness the groundswell of female participation. As a club, we’ve been the beneficiaries of our women’s team in the past couple of years and seen the explosion in the interest and the role that they play as champions of our club.”

‘Unashamedly we are on a growth trajectory, we’re charging towards 75,000 members and on our way to 100,000.’

Tom Harley

Harley is unfailingly courteous and engaging, but you do not survive 11 seasons as a defender in the AFL without possessing a tough interior. He has set aggressive targets for his club and will pursue them relentlessly. If all goes to plan, that could one day include the Swans playing at a bigger SCG to house the increasing demand from fans.

“Nothing in my view would speak to the size of the club and the passionate support of the club like genuine scarcity, and we’re not far from it. We have an average crowd of 34,000, it [the SCG] holds 46,000, but in reality, once you take into account sight-restricted seats and the like, anything sort of at 40,000 it’s chock-a-block,” Harley says.

“ Unashamedly we are on a growth trajectory, we’re charging towards 75,000 members and on our way to 100,000. Now, the ground only holds 40,000, so that’d be a good problem to have.”

Young stars such as Errol Gulden – born and bred in Sydney – represent the future of the Swans.Credit: Getty

While membership graphs continue to point upwards, Harley is also plotting and planning for an elusive premiership, after seeing the Swans lose grand finals in 2014, 2016 and 2022. What keeps him up at night as the man in charge of the club?

“Lots of things, lots of things,” Harley says.

“You sweat the performance of your teams, that’s clearly a big one. But the biggest thing is just in my role. When I talk about the privilege of the role, you just want to do a good job. Like a lot of people, I’m my own harshest critic, and I know when I haven’t hit the levels that I would like to hit.

“You’re just constantly striving to be better today than you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you were today. And if I’m really honest, they’re the things that keep me up at night.”

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