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With Saturday afternoon’s drubbing at the hands of the high-flying Hawks, the Swans fell at the final hurdle in Lance Franklin’s first year at the club.
Franklin was contracted to the Swans to do three things – kick goals, put bums in seats, and win premierships.
Having kicked 67 goals in his 19 regular-season games for the Swans, Franklin was 2014’s top goal scorer, and collected his third Coleman medal. He definitely kicked the goals.
The Swans enjoyed record membership sales on the back of Franklin’s signing, with 30,000 members signed up by early February. They finished with over 38,000 members – over 8,000 more members than two years ago when they last played in a grand final.
Sydney’s crowd numbers also rose to an average of over 32,000 per game. The massive crowds against Geelong and Port Adelaide were signs that the Swans were again major players in the Sydney market.
The Swans recorded huge crowd numbers to both of their home finals, despite the fact both games were taken to ANZ Stadium from their traditional home of the SCG.
Judging by the amount of Swans jerseys displaying their big forward’s number 23, it’s fair to say Franklin put bums on seats. His image was certainly plastered everywhere throughout September.
As for the grand final, Franklin kicked four goals and was arguably Sydney’s most notable contributor. The Swans simply ran into a superior side on the day. Perhaps only the Geelong side of 2007 would have been able to wrestle back momentum from the red-hot Hawks on Saturday afternoon.
Franklin stood up and booted four goals, his best grand final tally in his amazing career, while Sydney’s other big name goal-kicker Kurt Tippett was kept quiet.
Franklin wasn’t able to deliver a premiership in his first season at the club despite his best efforts.
At over a million dollars a season, is two out of three good enough?
In 2014 Buddy collected a Coleman medal, 22 Brownlow votes and bagged four goals on grand final day. He couldn’t have done any more in his first year at the Harbour City.
With the best part of a decade remaining on his multi-million dollar deal, if the Swans can manage to provide Franklin with a suitable supporting cast, the flags will come.
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