A while ago I was asked by someone at a footy club, how would I go about keeping a story under wraps – out of the media.
At the time I answered the best way I thought possible. I replied that history had taught me stories always seemed to get out, no matter how well you try and hide them.
I said if it was up to me, I would go on the front foot with the story. I would get it out there into the media first rather than be blindsided when some reporter got a sniff of the story.
That way you can, to a degree, dictate the way the story runs.
Of course in this particular instance I was thinking about a club perhaps wanting to hush up a player getting drunk and damaging property, or something similar, but from the reaction to my response, I got the feeling if they wanted to keep a story buried, it would stay buried.
It wasn’t someone from the Swans with whom I had that conversation, but I now do have to offer congratulations to them in adding ‘sensational secret keeping’, to all the other things they do so well, both on and off the park.
October last year… that’s reportedly when the ‘Lance Franklin to the Swans’ idea was first discussed, and for the next 12 months, everyone kept their mouths shut.
Now that is impressive. I wouldn’t have been able to resist telling someone, who would have no doubt told someone else, and so on and so on.
Even Adam Goodes, the most decorated of Swans, the club games’ record holder, a leader on and off the field, a former captain, went public three days earlier declaring there would be no way Buddy would be at the Swans.
I have no doubt Goodes was telling what he believed to be the truth. He just wasn’t one of the very select few who had lived inside the Franklin bubble for the previous 12 months.
In the end, it’s kudos to the Swans, not simply for snaring one the best players in the game, but for not raising any suspicion he was even in their future thoughts, and then, for putting together an astounding deal, which they knew nobody could compete with.
Yet again, the Swans get their man, and while they usually recruit players, give them a second chance, and turn them into stars – take Josh Kennedy for example – one can only wonder what they will make of a ready-made superstar.
There has been, and will continue to be, complaints from opposition clubs, and from the outside, you can agree with their arguments.
But you work with what you can work with, and the Swans have done precisely that… and look at their outcome.
Bad for the game? Some say yes. I can certainly tell you it’s a hell of a boost for the game in Sydney, a game that, while it has improved significantly over the past decade, still needs a successful team, and a superstar to cheer.
Rugby league fans may not have liked the game or the Swans, but they knew of, recognised, and loved cheering Tony ‘Plugger’ Lockett, and it was the same with Big Bad Bustling Barry Hall.
Now they have Big Bad Bustling Buddy.
Much has been made of it being a kick in the guts to the Giants, and sure it would hurt.
Many reasons have been thrown up for Franklin choosing Swans over Giants, the most interesting that no player would really want to live in western Sydney.
Firstly, here’s a fact. The Giants are not based at Blacktown. They play and train at Sydney Olympic Park, they live at the very impressive Breakfast Point.
It is not the beachside many of the Swans call home, but it’s not the sticks either.
The reason Franklin has gone to the Swans is simple.
It’s not about money, not about living conditions or proximity to the beach, or the Ivy nightclub. It’s because the Swans are, and will be for some time, legitimate contenders for the flag.
The Swans have reached the finals in all but one season since 2003. The Giants, while full of potential with their high draft picks, won’t be pushing for the finals – let alone a premiership – for a few years yet.
And while some fans think they are all mercenaries, professional football players – in all codes – play the game for one thing… to win, and to win it all.
Franklin knows exactly what that is like, and he knows he can do it with the Swans.
Whether he could at GWS, that clearly was a question he couldn’t answer and, as a result, a risk he wasn’t prepared to take.
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