Buddy Franklin - 300 Games

[Rustyrich]

Hope he also makes it to 1000 goals. What a career

 

[Damon_3388]

The 12 years of his career between 2007 and 2018 look amazing on paper, over that period across Sydney and Hawks average something like 3.6 goals a game which is obscene in the modern era.

View attachment 731524

To kick 60+ goals in 10 out of 11 seasons (from 2007-2017, and then follow it up with 57 in 2018), in this era of footy, is a pretty amazing level of consistency and quality.

Even just the 8 straight seasons of 60+ is a feat in itself that only three other players in VFL/AFL history have achieved - Doug Wade (8 straight from 1967-1974) Jason Dunstall (11 straight from 1986-1996) and Gordon Coventry (13 straight from 1925-1937) - so it's clearly a once-in-a-generation accolade from a once-in-a-generation player.

Have we ever seen a player with Buddy's "freak factor" also have such consistency and longevity in the game?

 

[Monkey King]

If buddy was as strong as Carey in the air, he'd be comfortably better then him.

There's a lot Carey couldn't do that Buddy can

I’ve not seen any player comfortably better than Carey. Ablett was strong in the air mark and could do a lot Carey couldn’t, still no dice. I don’t think a strong marking Buddy is going to change anything other than elevate his name into that upper echelon of greats.

 

[revo333]

Surely I am not alone here but why is he playing game 300 in Round 23 in a dead rubber against St Kilda?

A very humble person, no fuss and people close to him say he wouldn't want the spotlight put on him and would prefer to get the game over and done with.

 

[RUNVS]

A very humble person, no fuss and people close to him say he wouldn't want the spotlight put on him and would prefer to get the game over and done with.

Oddly enough despite his swagger on the field you can tell in interviews he is uncomfortable with the spotlight.

 

[Xtreme]

Could have had 4 premierships chose not to

A very good athlete that beat defenders frequently

Injuries may mean he won't get 1000 goals, but you never know what the future holds.

 

[Sirlemsip]

I’ve not seen any player comfortably better than Carey. Ablett was strong in the air mark and could do a lot Carey couldn’t, still no dice. I don’t think a strong marking Buddy is going to change anything other than elevate his name into that upper echelon of greats.

All three (Carey, Ablett Snr, Buddy) are different types of players. Because Buddy played in a different 'era' to the other two it is hard to truly compare who is 'better'.

The fact is that all of them would be considered the best player in the competition at different stages of their respective careers. You couldn't go wrong starting to build your team around any of them (though I do accept that Carey was easily the best leader of the three).

 

[Vyrone Trickery]

I thought he was a hall of famer but some Richmond fans have informed me he’s a hack compared to Jack Riewoldt so id better reevaluate

 

[Damon_3388]

For all the talk about Buddy's "poor" overhead marking, can anyone think of a game or series of games where this has resulted in an individual opponent outright beating him?

 

[demondavey]

Surely Paul i can see you’ve disliked a lot of posts, can you please explain why you’ve done this and why don’t agree with them?

 

[demondavey]

Wouldn't even make the the top 200 of all time. Always goes missing when the heat's on. Can't mark overhead. Sorry.

Can you please give us your top 200 of all time?

 

[Scotland]

For all the talk about Buddy's "poor" overhead marking, can anyone think of a game or series of games where this has resulted in an individual opponent outright beating him?

Brian Lake schooled him when he was at the Dogs. I think it was this game:

AFL Tables - Western Bulldogs v Hawthorn - Sat, 4-Jul-2009 7:10 PM - Match Stats

afltables.com

In the previous year (2008, the Buddy year) he kicked 5 against them during the season then 8 in the QF.

We beat Hawthorn in Tassie in 2011 which is pretty rare and he had 24 touches and kicked 6.2 out of 9 goals in a low scoring game. He's got hold of us a few times. Kicked 8 on (mostly) Barrass last year in the first ever game at Optus and I don't think Barrass or McGovern played poorly. He was just on and the Swans pushed right up the ground to give him a Horse paddock. Even this year he has barely played and his best game of the year was still against us, dick. Did kick just 1 in 2012 but it was 1.6 in the worst game of all time (Rd 4, 5.21 vs 5.16 in the dry). His worst game against us since the start of 2008 (he had some nothing games 2005-2007 but he was a kid so can't judge him on that) is probably 13 disposals and 3 shots at goal which you would take going in since he usually gets a lot of touches up the ground and has difficult shots at the sticks. I don't remember Darren Glass, Eric Mackenzie, Tom Barrass or Jeremy McGovern ever hands down beating him Jakovich vs Carey style over the last 10-15 years and they are some pretty handy key defenders. Tigers fans will claim Rance but they have NFI.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

That 2008 season was something special, should've won the brownlow in a landslide.


Congrats on 300 Bud!

 

[4THAWN]

Can still remember how sad I was when I found out bud was leaving.

Should definitely play on for at least another year, if he can actually get through a pre-season without any interruptions he'll be 2.5 goals a game.

He's played 9 games, probably been injured in 3 of them, and is still up there in the top 3 forwards in the league for goals per game.

If Bud's 300th can be anywhere near as good as Rough's farewell, then I'll be very happy to watch it.

It is a bit of a shame that Sydney seem to be(from an outsider's perspective) just in the earlier stages of a rebuild with a very young group at the same time they've got Buddy on their list. No doubt he could still provide the swans with some September magic if they could get there. I don't think he'll hang on that long though.

He's going to have one of the best highlight reels of the modern era, if not the best.

Easily the best key forward of the modern generation.

The argument for second is between J.Kennedy, J.Reiwoldt. Fev was brilliant although 204 games will see him be run-over by these modern day forwards. Barry Hall was also dominant in the modern era.

I'd probably have JK as #2, considering he's been able to kick an average of over 2.8 goals per game each year between 2013-2018 while sharing the forward line with other notable goalkickers such as Darling and Lecras.

I reckon Reiwoldt could catch him depending on if Kennedy slows down and Reiwoldt keeps up a good pace for another 2-3 years.

 

[Gysenn]

Graphic for The Quarterly.

300 of the best for Lance 'Buddy' Franklin.

The best 300 games we've ever seen?

View attachment 731953

 

[Kavliaris69]

Buddy is the best player I have seen since Carey. He would be the first picked the the next team of the century. No other player has excited footy fans more than this guy. He is a very special talent and we should be glad to have witnessed him doing the almost impossible on very many occasions.

To think Hawks could have picked Tambling. Good grief!!!

 

[Back One Out]

Best forward of his generation. If he was a great mark he may have gone down as one of the very best ever.

Most people would say he IS one of the very best ever. No ifs or buts.

Richo was a GREAT mark and probably the closest I've seen to Buddy in terms of size and athleticism, but Franklin has him well covered. Most key forwards need to be a good mark in order to get the ball. Franklin is a different type of beast. He does it his own way and he kicks the ball (over 55m/60m) better than anyone who ever played the game.

It's like saying if Greg Williams or Sam Mitchell were quicker, they may have gone down as two of the very best ever.
Didn't matter, did it? What they lacked in leg speed, they compensated with footy IQ and superb disposal.

If Buddy was a great mark like Plugger, he probably would've kicked 2000 goals and won 5 Brownlows
(and if Plugger could've moved around like Buddy, he probably would've done the same)

 

[Leon]

Absolute legendary player.

Have loved watching him when he’s on over the years, and been scared shitless by the sight of him ripping up my mob on multiple occasions.

Hope he’s got a few more years left him in.

 

[RUNVS]

Watching this video it seems Buddy loves tearing Port a new one as 40% of his best goals in Swans colours were against Port Adelaide.

 

[Damon_3388]

That 2008 season was something special, should've won the brownlow in a landslide.

Keeping in mind that Buddy got votes in every one of the eight H&A games that he kicked 6+ goals in that year, which games was he "robbed" of votes in?

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Keeping in mind that Buddy got votes in every one of the eight H&A games that he kicked 6+ goals in that year, which games was he "robbed" of votes in?

Have you got a breakdown of the votes?

 

[catscollector]

For all the talk about Buddy's "poor" overhead marking, can anyone think of a game or series of games where this has resulted in an individual opponent outright beating him?

He very rarely got the better of any of our defenders.
I have been to countless Cats v Hawks games and never did he dominate any of the games I witnessed.
This is very subjective though as Geelong had an all time great line-up for many years on end.

Lonergan and Scarlett were very similar to the way in which Frawley and Silvagni played the game. They constantly blanketed opponents to the point it was nearly impeding the forward. No space and constant concentration on Franklin.
Very similar to how Carlton managed Ablett Senior and kept him quiet on the majority of encounters.

 

[Damon_3388]

Have you got a breakdown of the votes?

The numbers and votes for each game Buddy has played in can be found and clicked through to here.

The round-by-round votes from the 2008 Brownlow Medal count can be found here.

The totals for 2008 can be found here.

Buddy was just 4 votes off the winner, and polled in the same number of games (9) as the winner. I'm a big fan of his, but I'd hardly say it was some sort of travesty that he didn't win that year TBH.

 

[Damon_3388]

He very rarely got the better of any of our defenders.
I have been to countless Cats v Hawks games and never did he dominate any of the games I witnessed.
This is very subjective though as Geelong had an all time great line-up for many years on end.

Buddy did seem to suffer from inaccuracy ocassionally against the Cats, which would affect the view on his performances. Whether that's being denied the space to get to his "spots" to kick goals, I don't know, but he's had 7 games of 3+ behinds against the Cats during his career.

Interestingly, in what was a "down" year for both himself and his team, he did turn in a couple of dominant powerful performances against the Cats in 2009:

Round 1, 2009 - 13 disposals, 8 marks (7 marks inside 50, 4 contested marks), 5 goals, 2 behinds
Round 17, 2009 - 20 disposals, 7 marks (4 marks inside 50, 3 contested marks), 5 goals, 2 behinds

That was a weird, up-and-down year for Buddy; He had 7 games where he had 3+ contested marks, and then another 7 games where he had zero contested marks. He also had 11 games that year with 4+ goals accounting for 49 of his 67 goals for the year, meaning that he kicked just 18 goals in the other 10 games he played.

Lonergan and Scarlett were very similar to the way in which Frawley and Silvagni played the game. They constantly blanketed opponents to the point it was nearly impeding the forward. No space and constant concentration on Franklin.
Very similar to how Carlton managed Ablett Senior and kept him quiet on the majority of encounters.

I seem to recall Andrew Mackie spending a bit of time on Buddy at various intervals, too.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

The numbers and votes for each game Buddy has played in can be found and clicked through to here.

The round-by-round votes from the 2008 Brownlow Medal count can be found here.

The totals for 2008 can be found here.

Buddy was just 4 votes off the winner, and polled in the same number of games (9) as the winner. I'm a big fan of his, but I'd hardly say it was some sort of travesty that he didn't win that year TBH.

He received 1 or 2 votes when kicking 6 goals a few times. Should’ve have easily had Cooney covered.