Last weekend, Lance Franklin moved into 13th on the AFL’s all-time goal-kicking list, quietly passing Saverio Rocca in the Swans’ heavy loss to GWS last Sunday. He now has 749 career goals, at a clip over 3.2 goals per game.
On current trajectory, and barring injury, Franklin will move into the top ten roughly in mid-2017. This is a phenomenal achievement with another five years left on his contract.
The Swans are building nicely for another assault over the next few years to also add to his two premiership medallions.
For those interested, Bernie Quinlan is presently 10th on this list on 817, and to get there Franklin will also pass two Richmond immortals, Kevin Bartlett (778) and Matthew Richardson (800).
Ahead of Quinlan in the top ten are Peter McKenna, Leigh Matthews, Matthews Lloyd, Jack Titus, Gary Ablett Sr, Doug Wade, Jason Dunstall, Gordon Coventry and Tony Lockett.
In addition to this rare company, recently passed luminaries on the goal kicking list in 2016 include Barry Hall, ‘Sticks’ Kernahan and King Carey himself.
Of the aforementioned players, Wayne Carey is considered by many to be the greatest, with Leigh Matthews very close behind.
Carey, for mastering the most difficult position to play on the ground in centre half-forward, and Matthews for redefining the role of goal-kicking midfielder.
There are some friends there though. There’s Gary Ablett Snr, who played a tremendous amount of football on the wing, incredibly conjured 1030 goals from 248 matches. Jason Dunstall and Tony Lockett had a mortgage on goal-squares from the mid 80s for over a decade, technically different players but equally as damaging.
The conversation now needs to turn to Buddy being in this company.
While footy fans love talking up their champion midfielders and ‘Gibraltar’ defenders, the allure of the all-conquering goal-kicker still stands tall.
A few weeks back, The Roar’s Jay Croucher wrote a piece on Franklin’s return on investment for the Swans.
In a few tidy paragraphs describing how the Swans saw off Hawthorn, in what was a turgid, dour affair, he eloquently captured what Buddy brings to the game to both a Swans fan and for the non-partisan viewer.
It was oddly fitting, and perhaps inevitable, that a game lacking any form of rhythm, played entirely in the mud, was decided by a jazz musician who skates on ice.
From a purely statistical perspective, again allowing for injury, from 2017 under his current contract Buddy could see a minimum of another 100 games at the Swans.
If he were to average three goals a game in this time, this would take him to almost 1100 goals, and number four on the all-time goal-kicking list.
It’s a given that he is Hall-of-Fame, now it is time to hop on the Buddy train as he walks among legends. Enjoy the ride while you can.
Buddy is a player you simply must pay to go watch, friend or foe of the Swans.
It will be quite a while before we see another 1,000-goal champ.
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