AFL All-Australian team 2018: Buddy Franklin named captain in 8th appearance

Swans star Buddy Franklin has joined the AFL’s greats with a rare pair of honours at the All-Australian team announcement.

Lance Franklin and wife Jesinta Franklin. Picture: AAP

Sydney star Buddy Franklin has been rewarded for another outstanding home-and-away season by being named All Australian captain.

And selectors named two No1 club ruckmen — Melbourne’s Max Gawn and Collingwood’s Brody Grundy — for the first time since 2012.

Champion goal-kicker Franklin was honoured at a glitzy ceremony in Melbourne tonight by being named in the All Australian team for an amazing eighth time in his 14 seasons. In the modern era, only four other players have been All Australians on eight occasions — Gary Ablett Sr, Gary Ablett, Robert Harvey and Mark Ricciuto.

Franklin had previously been honoured in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 as a Hawthorn player, and in 2014, 2016 and last year at the Swans.

The 31-year-old icon remains the code’s most influential player and being honoured with the leadership role is richly deserved. He was named captain over Richmond full-back Alex Rance, who was the All Australian captain last year and made the team again tonight for a fifth time, and West Coast captain Shannon Hurn, an All Australian first timer who was named on a half-back flank.

The honour is also a feather in the cap for the Sydney administration, which shocked the game at the end of 2013 when it signed Franklin on a nine-year deal worth $10 million. Though the Swans have not yet won a flag since Franklin joined, he has been both an outstanding individual forward and very much a team-oriented player.

Franklin said earlier this year he expected to play out his contract, which does not expire until the end of 2022.

Despite missing four games this season with a painful heel injury that has restricted his training since round one, Franklin has kicked 57 goals as well as having a remarkable 89 inside-50s. He gathered 280 possessions, took 125 marks and made 38 tackles.

He is the greatest goal-kicker currently playing in the AFL with 917 career goals and moved into the top 10 all-time goal-kickers this year.

Franklin, who was named at centre half-forward, needs 10 goals to move into seventh place for the most goals kicked in the history of the elite code, behind Tony Lockett, who booted 1360 goals for St Kilda and Sydney. He could end his career as the fourth-best ever, behind Lockett, Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry (1299) and Hawthorn’s Jason Dunstall (1254).

He has booted 69 goals in 23 finals matches and is only 10 goals from taking outright second place on this list behind Coventry’s 112 goals in 31 finals. He should eventually pass Dunstall (78 goals, 21 finals) Jack Titus (74 goals, 24 finals) and Leigh Matthews, who booted 72 goals in 29 finals.

Geelong’s 2016 Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield, who received his sixth All Australian selection, was named as Franklin’s deputy.

Franklin’s out-of-contract teammate Jake Lloyd, the only other Sydney player in the 40-man squad, was a tad unlucky to have missed his first All Australian selection.

The last time two ruckmen were selected in the same All Australian team was in 2012 when West Coast teammates Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui were chosen. Two years earlier, Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands and Melbourne’s Mark Jamar were picked in the same side.

Gawn, who won All Australian honours in 2016, had an unprecedented 1000 hitouts during the home-and-away season. Grundy, who was one of 10 players to have made the team for the first time, had 847 ruck taps and 458 possessions.

The other newcomers to the All Australian ranks were Carlton’s Patrick Cripps, Collingwood wingman Steele Sidebottom, Geelong second-year defender Tom Stewart, GWS defender Lachie Whitfield, Hawthorn utility Jack Gunston, Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver, North Melbourne’s Shaun Higgins and Richmond’s Shane Edwards.

Eight players retained their spots from the 22 players named in last year’s All Australian team — Franklin, Dangerfield, Richmond’s Dustin Martin and Rance, Port Adelaide’s Robbie Gray, Adelaide defender Rory Laird, West Coast’s Jeremy McGovern and Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell.

Minor premiers Richmond supplied four players to the team after eight were nominated for the 40-man squad earlier this week, while Hawthorn and West Coast each supplied three players with 12 clubs represented.

Others considered unlucky not to have made the team included Western Bulldogs midfield star Jack Macrae, West Coast utility Elliot Yeo and Port Adelaide key defender Tom Jonas.

There wasn’t a spot for North Melbourne full forward Ben Brown, who was runner-up to Richmond’s John Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt. The final team is selected in starting positions as if to play a match. Riewoldt was named at full-forward in his third All Australian team.

Only five players selected tonight will not participate in the finals — West Coast’s Andrew Gaff, due to suspension, Laird, Gray, Cripps and Higgins.

The All Australian selection panel is Gillon McLachlan (chairman), Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Danny Frawley, Steve Hocking, Glen Jakovich, Chris Johnson, Cameron Ling, Matthew Richardson and Warren Tredrea.

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All Australian Team:

Back pocket

Tom Stewart (Geelong); Rory Laird (Adelaide)

Full-back

Alex Rance (Richmond)

Half-backs

Shannon Hurn (West Coast); Lachie Whitfield (GWS)

Centre half-back

Jeremy McGovern (West Coast)

Wing

Andrew Gaff (West Coast); Steele Sidebottom (Collingwood)

Centre

Dustin Martin (Richmond)

Half-forward

Patrick Dangerfield (vc, Geelong); Robbie Gray (Port Adelaide)

Centre half-forward

Lance Franklin (capt, Sydney)

Forward pocket

Jack Gunston (Hawthorn); Luke Breust (Hawthorn)

Full-forward

Jack Riewoldt (Richmond)

Ruck

Max Gawn (Melbourne)

Ruck rover

Patrick Cripps (Carlton)

Rover

Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn)

Interchange

Shane Edwards (Richmond); Brodie Grundy (Collingwood); Shaun Higgins (North Melbourne); Clayton Oliver (Melbourne)