'Some issues': AFL great's extraordinary Buddy Franklin plan
An AFL great has made the stunning claim that the Sydney Swans should cash in on their biggest superstar, Lance Franklin, while they still can.
Franklin is widely regarded as the Swans’ best player and has been integral to their success since joining in 2013 on a nine-year, $10 million contract.
During that time, Franklin has played in two losing grand finals (2014 and 2016) and consistently been one of the leading goal kickers in the AFL.
However, the Swans have stuttered to a concerning 1-4 start to the new season, with their only victory coming against lowly Carlton.
Curiously, the Swans got off to a similarly concerning start to the 2017 season – winless in their opening six games before turning things around to make it all the way to the semi-finals.
However, Sydney’s predicament in 2019 has led to many experts declaring their finals chances as good as over.
AFL greats Tim Watson, Garry Lyon and Nick Riewoldt, have all tipped the Swans to miss the eight this year.
“I just think there’s a tipping point for all teams. ”I feel like they’ve probably reached it,” Riewoldt said about the Swans’ finals hopes.
“(They’re) incredibly reliant on (Lance) Franklin to kick their goals.
“I just think there’s a tipping point for all teams and they might be at it.”
Extraordinary as it is to think, Collingwood legend Tony Shaw says the answer may be to trade Franklin sooner rather than later, with a view to building for the future.
“Buddy’s got four years left on his [nine-year] contract. A lot of things can happen in four years, but say, the next two years, do you think you can see the Sydney Swans winning a premiership?” Shaw posed to The Daily Telegraph.
“I’m thinking maybe while Buddy still has a little bit to offer you can go the reverse and build for another couple of years down the track, long term and get some, I would think, very early draft picks.”
Swans coach jumps to defence of ‘selfish’ Buddy
Franklin was criticised by Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace for “one of the more selfish games” he’d seen him play in the latest loss to Melbourne at the SCG.
However, Swans coach John Longmire disagreed with the assertion, describing Franklin as a “team-first player.’
“Generally you’d have to say he’s not a selfish player, he’s been fantastic as far as bringing other players into the game,” Longmire said.
“As all players do he made some decisions that you’d like to look back and do again, it’s as simple as that with Lance and I’m not too concerned about him in that regard.”
Longmire pinpointed stoppage woes as the big contributing factor to his club’s inconsistent start to the season.
He noted that Sydney’s inside 50 entries were up on last season but they were kicking less and conceding more goals than in 2017 and pointed to their indiscipline at stoppages, where they have been caned by umpires.
“We’ve just been inconsistent in all areas of our game, we just haven”t been able to string together a four quarter performance,” Longmire said on Monday.
We’ve been really poor at scores against from stoppages, it’s been a consistent theme and it’s an all over team structure we need to get right and make sure we get better at.
“We can’t keep leaking goals as much as we are from those stoppage situations.
“We’re down a goal than what we were last year attack-wise, but we’re down almost two goals defence-wise and a bit of that is coming from our stoppages and not just directly around the source, where we’re giving too many free-kicks away.
Longmire expects Isaac Heeney to be fine for Saturday’s game against Richmond after hurting his hip in last Thursday’s game.
He said recruited forward Dan Menzel was back training last week after his latest groin injury setback and was probably another week or two away from coming back through the NEAFL.
