Genius is sharp and sudden. It doesn’t run to a timeline, and it doesn’t wait for a single date – like the final Saturday of a season. It’s unexpected, and that’s what makes it so special.
This is the problem confronting Lance Franklin. His genius is unquestioned – perhaps unparalleled. His timing may not be.
We expect the greats of the game to stand tallest when the stakes are highest. Saturday will be Franklin’s fifth grand final. He’s underwhelmed in the first four. His two best grand finals, in 2012 and 2014, were blighted by context – wayward kicking in the former, the implosion of the rest of his team in the latter – and defeat.
His performances on the final Saturday have been perfectly respectable, but when the expectation is transcendence, respectability is a wet blanket.(Click to Tweet)
Anything short of a star turn from Franklin on Saturday will be a disappointment. It’s unfair, but it’s inevitable. When you’re that good, we expect you to be that great.
Franklin’s legend will grow immeasurably if he can replicate his last performance on the MCG’s turf. The stat sheet will remember others before him, but anyone who watched Sydney torment Geelong last Friday night will know that it was Franklin’s hand that took all the Cats’ nine lives in a single, devastating quarter.
Number 23 was everywhere when the game was in the balance – and given his dominance the game wasn’t in the balance for very long.
The complete Buddy package was on display in its purest, most majestic form – that combination of grace, skill, speed and violence that’s made him the AFL’s most imposing forward since Wayne Carey.
Commentators love to wax lyrical about how certain key forwards are actually very proficient field kicks, but in Franklin’s case it’s true. He was beyond ‘proficient’ on Friday night, though, sinking the knife into Geelong with his deft passing, lowering his eyes and caressing soft, immaculately weighted kicks to targets inside 50.
Franklin’s genius can end you in a diverse spread of equally demoralising ways. He embarrassed Tom Lonergan, dummying and selling him enough sweet, sumptuous candy that the Geelong veteran might have passed out from a sugar overdose.
He destroyed Steven Motlop by paying homage to retired Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, entering Beast Mode and bulldozing over Motlop, and Motlop stayed dead for the rest of the night.
These two moments, minutes apart, encapsulate what makes Franklin so special – the grace and delicate, almost gloating poise, of the former, and the visceral, magnificent violence of the latter. There has never been anyone like him.
He’s one of the few forwards in the league who can dominate a game without impacting the scoreboard. He’d already done that in the first term against the Cats, but then added a couple of majors as if to wink at his own brilliance. The ball boomed towards goal, sliding through the air in that idiosyncratic manner that only Franklin’s kicks can.
The grand final narrative is all about the Bulldogs and for good reason. The Swans are a team you begrudgingly respect, but the Bulldogs, ludicrous as it sounds, make you feel better about the world. The mind might have a vague appreciation for the Swans, but the Dogs tug at the heart and the soul. They restore your faith in conceptions of hope and resilience, and if they win on Saturday it will hard to imagine a more remarkable, euphoric victory in Australian sport.
Lance Franklin can turn that narrative on its head. While the football world romanticises the Dogs and anoints Patrick Dangerfield, you can’t help but feel that there’s a final act twist coming – perhaps a coronation for one of the game’s greats.
Franklin’s most iconic moments are dulled a little by their circumstances.
A 13-goal haul in a meaningless game against North Melbourne, those two running goals in the left forward pocket in a Round 13 game against Essendon, the booming match-winning goal against the Crows in the 2007 elimination final before getting blown out the week after, and that ridiculous inside-out dribbling check-side from the right boundary to put Hawthorn in front in the dying moments of the 2011 preliminary final, a moment that forced this writer to put his head in his hands in the Great Southern Stand and both lament and accept the existence of higher powers. But even that moment, as magnificent as it was, prefaced a defeat.
David Foster Wallace once famously said that genius is not replicable. If Franklin can prove him wrong on Saturday, Bulldogs fans and the vast majority of Australians will be left to weep.
All superstars have a villain’s role lurking inside them – waiting to torment a desperate people. For an afternoon, Franklin might be about to become the nation’s number one villain – but if he does we won’t loathe him for it. We’ll respond much like I did that night at the MCG in 2011. We’ll bow down in fear and reluctant appreciation, and accept that the most spirited army we’ve seen in years just didn’t have enough to topple a king.
Momentbymoment
Guest
This comment doesn't support the COLA narrative. Reported!
Donde es Fuss
Guest
"His genius is unquestioned – perhaps unparalleled" now Jay, please sit down and rethink what you just said
Jon B
Guest
Best article I've read this GF week. Well done Jay. You have perfectly captured the other, largely unheralded story that could prove to become a memorable piece of the history of our great sport. One of the best of all time will be out there at the peak of his powers. The stage is set for the most exciting player since Ablett Snr to leave a legacy of greatness on the biggest stage of all.
Kavvy
Guest
No we (hawthorn) wouldn't have. We didn't get rid of Kennedy and McGlynn because we couldn't afford to keep them. That is a bizarre comment, we brought in Burgoyne on big coin (worth every penny in the end) the same year we got rid of JP Kennedy (a. 13 game player at that point, not really commanding much $). Your logic is ridiculous
Asd
Guest
Doesn't have to kick a lot of goals just have a presents like against Geelong
harry houdini
Roar Rookie
Franklin looks like he means business this year.
rusty
Roar Rookie
If the bullies are to have any chance Stringer has to have a huge game. Been pretty quiet this finals series really. Desperately want the dogs to win but just can't see how they will do it.
Slane
Guest
I would be barracking for the Swans against anybody but Richmond, Bulldogs, the Saints or Freo. I think you'll find there are plenty of people in Vic who feel the same way. It would be so special if one of the dud teams could pick up a flag and the way the Dogs play is exhilarating.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Absolutely can't stand the Swans (it's personal- my wife is a Swans supporter and knows nothing about Footy. She is the stereotypical Swans supporter lol) , but absolutely love watching Buddy, Heeney and Gary Rohan play. I would love more than anything to see the Doggies get the upset, but the Swans are just going to be too slick, too well drilled. Been there done that. The old motto you have to lose one to win one, certainly ringing loud and true. I do hope though that I get to see a firing Buddy, bombing a few beauties on that tight angle with a bit of right to left!!!!!!!
kick to kick
Guest
Victorian whingeing about Sydney getting a leg up is becoming absurd. Since its first AFL era flag in 2005 the Swans have had the fewest top ten picks in the draft of any club. Exactly 1 - Gary Rohan. McVeigh was a top ten in 2002 and yes through trading , free agency and the Academy they have picked up Franklin (originally a pick 5) , Tippet (11), Heeney(18) and Mills (3). All top ten talent if not officially top ten. But in the preliminary final against Geelong 11 players - half the team - were originally rookie picks. 9 (Grundy, Jack, Lloyd,Naismith, Papley, Rampe, Smith, Marsh, Xavier Richards), were rookie drafted by the Swans and 2 (McGlynn and Laidler) started on the rookie list of other clubs and the Swans essentially picked them up as discards. No other team in the League has anywhere near that percentage of rookie sourced players. By way of contrast Port Adelaide has something like 9 top ten draftees and I think Richmond has just one rookie sourced senior player (Lambert). Having said that I tip my hat to the Dogs who have also done it the hard way. They have Boyd as a traded number 1 pick and three other top tens Bontempelli, Macrae and Stringer. Not that many though all guns - and they have the second most rookie sourced players in the League -about 7. The grand final is between 2 teams who have earned success.
Andrew
Roar Rookie
As a Hawthorn fan, Franklin is still my favourite player in the competition. My hope for this Saturday is that he kicks 10 and has 2 medals around his neck at the end of the day!
Pumping Dougie
Guest
This is your first crap article for the year Jay! You've hit me with a reality check and reminded me that it's inevitable the Footy Gods and their son Buddy are about to trample our wild fantasy dreams. ?
Pete
Guest
Runner-up for Norm Smith Medal in 96 grand final so hardly a spud !
Brian
Guest
Kind of Rohan was pick No 6, Tom Mitchell was father-son but certainly Hannerbry and Parker were two amazing pickups. Kennedy and McGlynn was a great trade or alternatively the type of players Hawthorn would have kept if they had COLA.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Yeah Carey is interesting. North of that period were a pretty good team. Total GF spud is a bit of an exaggeration as in 1996 and 1999 he beat his opponents and was the quintessential team man as kangas ran all over the shop to get on the scoreboard. However dead on with 1998, in that dismal second half against Adelaide, he disappeared like Lucielle did on Kenny Rogers. I think Franklin has an excellent chance of causing carnage because like Carey, he has a pretty good team around him. Like Carey though, the eyes will be on the prize before personal glory and it might be a modest return by his standards for a solid win.
anon
Guest
Funny you mention Wayne Carey because he's considered one of the best players of all time, yet was a total spud on Grand Final day. 4 goals from 3 Grand Finals. No-one questions his greatness.
Kavvy
Guest
Solid argument that Sam Mitchell could have won it but it was out of those two and Cyril was a deserving winner. When the game was there to be won early he turned it on and put the eagles to the sword. Don't be tainted/overreact just cos of how annoying the ch7 fanboys are when they talk about him.
Paul D
Roar Guru
He should change his name to Cyril, then one good quarter is all he needs to earn him a Normie
Winston
Guest
Fantastic piece! At Longmire's press conference after the prelim, a journo asked a stupid question for the last question along the lines of, what do you think about the GWS vs Bulldogs game and how that game attaches to it history in the making, and Longmire's response was, "so are we", and then stood up and walked out. I thought that was brilliant. For as much love there is for the Bulldogs (and I for one have declared that had the Swans lost to Geelong, I would be barracking for the Dogs), let's not forget the Swans are an excellent team and an excellent club with just as much passion involved. I get it that there's all the talk about COLA and academies and then there was the Goodes issues, but it really wasn't that long ago when everyone was still talking about how Sydney manages to turn recycled players into superstars, how they have heart in the way they play, how much their new players come on totally ready and look like they've been playing for 5 years. All of those things are still true about them right now. Try telling Ben McGlynn that the flag will mean more for the Dogs than the Swans and see what he'll say! Back to the article, I don't really agree that Buddy has underperformed in the first 4 GFs. In 2014 he was clearly the best Swans player, and that's particularly hard when he's the key forward with the rest of the team slaughtered. 2012 didn't he also kick 4 goals? A lot was said about his bad kicks, but he still kicked the 4 and was a constant threat. Then in 2008, sure he might not have had the best GF, but he kicked 100 goals that year, which means the Cats would most definitely had to plan the game by having at least 2 guys on him at all times, and that in itself would have helped his team immensely. I'm guessing what you're really saying (and what I'm personally hoping for) is wouldn't it be nice for Buddy to kick 7 goals, 25 disposals, 5 tackles inside 50, and get the Norm Smith. If he does that, regardless of what the usual suspects of Kennedy, Hannebery, Bontempelli, Liberatore etc do, there'll be zero doubt who is the king.
Kavvy
Guest
He's a joy to watch. Great article Jay. I'll be going for the dogs. But if Saturday doesn't turn out to be a dog day afternoon then I hope the big Bud wins the Norm Smith. Buddy at his best has workhorse defenders repeating "This is Water, This is water" just to get through the grind of trying to control a generational talent.