Does Lance Franklin need to change his game if Sydney Swans are to be an AFL threat?

Mick Stirling

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Does Lance Franklin need to change his game if Sydney Swans are to be an AFL threat? image

Is Lance Franklin good for Sydney or is it possible the AFL's “best forward of the modern era” has held the Swans back since moving from Hawthorn at the end of 2013?

Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon shone a light on Buddy’s game against Gold Coast last week and may have inadvertently shown why the Swans have had limited success since committing to a nine-year, $10 million deal for the superstar.

Lyon was responding to comments from Dermott Brereton after the Hawks champion suggested Sydney suffered from playing too defensive a brand of football.

“Yes they play that way, Dermott is 100 per cent right, they are very content to play footy in their back half,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast on Friday morning.

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“The other suggestion is that it’s a little more difficult to get Buddy to play where you want to play him. He doesn’t allow you to play with great structure.”

In an era where premierships are being won by teams that insist on everyone playing a role, Franklin’s role is undefined, or at least has no clearer instruction beyond ‘go out there and be Buddy Franklin’.


When he was at Hawthorn, Franklin shared a forward line with Jarryd Roughead, Cyril Rioli and Luke Breust, so letting Buddy run free was affordable.

However, at Sydney he is the sole focus of the front half, and it’s hard to focus on someone when you have no idea where they’ll be at any given moment.

“That game on the weekend (against the Suns), he was up ‘free ranging’ while Steven May was marking the footy 20 metres out from goal on his own,” Lyon points out.

“He wasn’t Steven May’s opponent, but that is the stage where Buddy needed to go, ‘I’ll go back and be the man down here. I’ll stand next to Steven May and make sure at least we get a contest’.

“Steven May took four or five uncontested marks.

“At some stage, if you’re the best forward of the modern era, you can’t be running 90 metres away trying to get around the back, doing the stuff which is all good and well when we are playing well, and leave Steven May unmanned and uncontested in the forward half.

“I think he is a free spirit and I think there are some frustrations at times in trying to get him to play structure.”


With Kurt Tippett retired and Sam Reid missing through injury it has been up to Tom McCartin to be Sydney’s second tall-forward target, and as impressive as he’s been at times, the job of holding the attack together while Franklin frolics in the sunshine is too much for an 18-year-old in his first season.

It could be John Longmire’s biggest challenge to try and rein Buddy in to play a stay-at-home role where it’s more important to contest and bring the ball to ground than it is to kick goals, akin to Jack Riewoldt’s job at Richmond, leaving the scoring to small forwards like Ben Ronke, Will Hayward and Tom Papley.

The evidence would suggest that may be the best thing for the Swans.

But would it be the best thing for football?


 

Mick Stirling