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When Lance Franklin signed with the Sydney Swans, it sent shock waves throughout the AFL.
The mass hysteria it created over the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), and how the GWS Giants were blindsided by their crosstown rivals, at the time, it was thought of as the most unimaginable combination in footy – how on earth would it work?
And could it work? Few believed it could.
The Sydney Swans, now one of the most envied sporting clubs in Australia, with its much respected and sought after “Bloods” culture, and Lance Franklin, a show stopping glam power forward who is no stranger to front page headlines. It sounded like the AFL’s version of the Odd Couple.
It was so unthinkable, many believed the champion Hawks forward could threaten the Bloods culture, and potentially ruin it.
Even legendary Swans figure, Bob Skilton, who has seen his club go from the brink of oblivion and being the laughing stock of Australian sport, to being one of the most respected brands in Australian sport (now worth $3 million dollars in corporate sponsors alone), feared his beloved club could potentially endanger everything it has worked hard for.
Initially, it was looking that way, when rumours of alleged friction in the Swans camp emerged. Apparently Ryan O’Keefe and Franklin were at loggerheads, and Dan Hannebery had pranged Buddy’s Mercedes.
For much of 2013, the expectation was Franklin would go to the GWS Giants.
It was a no brainer – a perfect match. GWS, a club desperately trying to settle in the AFL’s toughest expansion area, and Buddy, a star forward with a perfect chance to escape the Melbourne fishbowl. There was a staggering offer of $2 million a season over six years on the table, with the AFL looking to endorse the Franklin move to the Giants, by offering him an ambassadorial role to promote the game in Western Sydney.
The Giants offer was lost amidst all the hysteria over Franklin’s $10 million over nine years deal at the Swans.
What also got lost in the hysteria was Hawthorn had offered Buddy $4.5 million over four years to stay a Hawk.
Understandably, the Giants fumed the Swans had beaten them to Buddy’s signature, they felt cheated. However as it unfolded, Buddy, via his manager, had instigated talks with the Swans after the 2012 Grand Final.
There was something attractive for Buddy about playing for Sydney.
All the talk about the money and the size of his contract has been proven to be complete nonsense, considering he was offered richer deals.
Presently, at the Swans, he is earning less over the next four years than he could have been at Hawthorn, and by the time the Swans feel the pinch of his heavily back ended contract, the club will have had most of its current roster either retired or moved on, the salary cap will have increased, and players at other clubs will be on even bigger deals.
The money alone seems it would not have been enough to get Buddy ‘s signature, it was the whole package.
What the Swans offered him was far more attractive. The culture, the settled environment, the guarantee of on field success, and the lure of Sydney’s social network.
Not even escaping the Melbourne fishbowl has had anything to do with it.
There was talk about the escape from the Melbourne fishbowl, signing with Sydney immediately ruled out any escape from the fishbowl, considering the Swans had been under heavy fire from rival clubs after signing Kurt Tippett.
The Sydney fishbowl, as far as the AFL is concerned, operates differently to Melbourne. It has to be a really good story to make the back page in the NRL soaked Sydney media. And an even better one to make the front page.
Crashing your girlfriend’s Jeep into four parked cars is going to do it. But so is a nine goal haul, with his team sitting on top of the AFL ladder with two rounds to go.
Why would Buddy go to the Swans, just to escape the media?
Melbourne and Sydney’s media have both been sweating on Buddy going to the Swans being a disaster?
A year in, so far the disaster hasn’t happened.
In fact, he is playing as well as he has ever done, and the Swans faithful have embraced him, the club has hit 40,000 members for the first time, and if Sydney goes on to win this years flag, the membership number is only going to skyrocket.
No one talks about why Buddy possibly baulked at playing for the GWS Giants.
Western Sydney is a traditional rugby league area, and home to four of the proudest clubs in the NRL, with histories as deep as any traditional AFL club.
Buddy was supposed to be the Giants very own Tony Lockett and do for the GWS what Plugger had done for the Swans. He could do for the Giants what Gary Ablett Jr has done for the Gold Coast Suns.
The sort of heavy promotion required for the AFL in Western Sydney would not be attractive to a player like Lance Franklin, who, regardless of his charismatic nature, just wants to play football.
At the GWS he would not have just been playing football.
The other problem is, the Giants are far from settled. Are they for Western Sydney, or are they for Canberra? They look vulnerable in Western Sydney and look to have a decent following in the ACT. Not a hard sum to figure out there.
They also look vulnerable to raids by Victorian clubs ready to pounce on any homesick kids.
The AFL has underestimated the challenge of establishing a club in Western Sydney.
But for Buddy, that is not his problem. At least at the Swans, he can just play football, and that’s just perfect.
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