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Superstar recruit Lance Franklin is on his way to the Sydney Swans and I’m hoping someone slips him a ticket to the Roosters-Sea Eagles rugby league grand final.
It would be a truly awesome introduction to the harbour city for one of AFL’s finest exponents.
In just 80 minutes, Buddy-boy will see and learn so much about Sydney – and its favourite football code – that he may wish he had come here years ago.
For starters, Franklin will marvel at a highly physical football contest that could ultimately prove to be the toughest league has turned on in decades.
He will witness two evenly-match teams hell bent on slugging it out, body against body, until a winner is finally declared.
Attending a night grand final, he will experience the magic of the skies darkening, the floodlights growing from bright to brilliant, and a capacity crowd at stadium that hosted the Olympic Games in 2000.
He will marvel at the ferocity of the opening 20 minutes from two teams that respect but dislike each other intensely. He will undoubtedly wonder if shoulder pads and headgear are enough to prevent a fleet of ambulances taking the bulk of the athletes to intensive care well before the half-time break.
The Roosters and Eagles , Manly and Easts. It is not the match-up the bulk of the code’s supporters, nor the media wanted nor expected but it is going to be a beauty between our two best performed teams. We may even be in for a more exciting and more memorable spectacle, than say, the Hawks versus Dockers? Time will tell.
Franklin will watch, mouth agape, as the NRL’s best performers of 2013 strut their stuff.
Initially, he will feel comfortable with so many tattoos on show but then he’ll begin to appreciate the amazing skills set that rugby league has to offer, a skills set like no other.
There will be high kicks, grubber kicks, banana kicks and maybe even drop kicks if the scores are close.
Wingers will launch themselves at impossible angles at the try-line; others will leap high to defuse bomb kicks while the big men continue to plough into each other like out-of-control bulldozers.
When the heavy-duty tackling is done, fancy footwork and deft hands will be on show. When end-to-end plays eventuate, the crowd will be bordering on delirious.
The Swans’ $9 million man may catch a glimpse or two of the coaches in their respective boxes. He might wonder whether the glass is super-strength in Geoff Toovey’s or whether Trent Robinson is watching the action from a refrigerator.
Signs around the ground will proclaim the star quality of a Rooster with the initials SBW. Buddy should be well advised to watch this guy in action. When he’s got the ball in his hands he’s dynamite. When he hasn’t got the Steeden, he can be just as lethal.
Two lifelong friends will be battling it out on the big stage. Mitchell Pearce v Kieran Foran.
Each has survived hundreds of backyard scraps with the other but this one is for ‘keeps.’
I’m not sure if Mr Franklin knows anything about hookers but the there will be two on show in this game, each with completely different backgrounds. The one in the maroon and white is a fitness guru and it is said that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
The hooker decked out in red, white and blue freely admits that league saved him from a life of crime and maybe even jail. The Greatest Game of All is definitely a game for all types.
There will be many other ‘characters’ up for excellence on this Night of Nights.
There’s a Snake, a Killer, a Cherry, a Rose and a Wolfman in Manly colours while the Roosters, who hail from an elite part of Sydney, are fittingly captained by a Count.
From any angle, the 2013 RL decider would provide an extraordinary introduction to Buddy Franklin, a stunning entrée to his new home city.
I hope he can somehow snare a ticket. He can even leave his umbrella in the limousine.
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