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Swans coach John Longmire is typically playing his cards within a centimetre of his chest, but if Lance Franklin is selected to play for the Swans this Friday night, it will dominate the pre-game banter and possibly attract a Buddy-cam on game night.
And so it should. The Billion Dollar Man (the figure tends to keep inflating, so let’s go big) is returning from injury this week, and lining up against the club he ‘abandoned’ for the big bickies in Sydney. It should be a sell-out – at the very least the biggest crowd of Sydney’s season – and it will be a blockbuster.
But while all the focus is upon Buddy and how he’ll fare against his once-beloved Hawks, I’ll be looking off his left, or maybe right, shoulder to the man who could very well be a key to Sydney’s success in 2014.
While Longmire says he is still unsure about Buddy, he did confirm the player formerly known as Sydney’s million-dollar recruit, Kurt Tippett, is on track to make his long-awaited return at ANZ Stadium against the premiers. Tippett trained on Saturday while his teammates were in Brisbane, and successfully negotiated a “hard session”, moving “really well and wanted to keep on training”.
Tippett has been out of sight, out of mind. A little over a year ago he was Sydney’s Buddy, controversially arriving in town on a lucrative contract. In Tippett’s case, he’d been told he would spend the first 11 games of the season suspended due to his role in Adelaide’s salary cap breaches and draft tampering.
There was fanfare when he did return, but his dozen games in red and white were a bit subdued compared to the hoopla of his arrival. In 2014, while Buddy has hogged the headlines, Tippett has been absent for all seven matches battling injury.
When Buddy signed with Sydney last year, my interest wasn’t purely on how he would slot into the Swans’ team and culture, but what a potentially lethal one-two punch the pair could be in Sydney’s forward line – even on the smaller Sydney Cricket Ground.
I’ve waited quite a while to see it, but thankfully I’m about to: if not this week, then the week after against Essendon.
Having another target for opposition defenders to focus on will benefit Franklin, and will take some of the heat off the Swans’ midfield, which has been a little too Buddy-focused – perhaps even subconsciously – in the opening matches of the season.
They did the same thing when Barry Hall was in town, and it leads to frustration for all concerned.
At least having Big Kurt – who turns 27 on Thursday – alongside Big Bud, there are two options to aim at, and two targets to worry about for defenders.
Big Kurt and Big Tex Walker made a handy combo when both were up and going in Adelaide. No disrespect to Taylor Walker, but Buddy is Buddy, and he also showed when partnering Jarryd Roughead that he can work well in tandem with another big forward. If the Swans can get the pair up and going, working well together, it could be what they need to step up against the likes of Hawthorn and Geelong.
Throw into that forward line Adam Goodes and the potency is, well, very potent – and hard for the Swans’ quality midfielders not to be able to find a player wearing red and white.
But regardless of whether Buddy’s knee allows him to play this week or not, things won’t miraculously happen this Friday night. It will take a bit of time to work smoothly, but I believe it will happen, and when it does the Swans – so long noted for their defence – will have one of the best attacks in the game.
The absence of Sam Mitchell and Brian Lake is a big help to the Swans this week, and they did look much better on Saturday against Brisbane than they did against Melbourne last weekend.
But Hawthorn were electrifying against St Kilda. It would be a brave or foolish man to tip against them this week. I’m not, but I can’t wait to see Big Kurt line up again in red and white.
And if it’s alongside Buddy, I’ll be glued to the action, first this week, then particularly when they gel in weeks to come.
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