Opinion Is Buddy's nine year contract finally coming back to haunt the Swans?

[MVille Swan]

When you listened to Buddy talk about the move to Sydney at the time a very significant reason was the fact that his partner
(now wife) lived in Sydney. He was young, well-off, gets to live in a very nice neighbourhood and can go down to the street to
grab a coffee and won't get hassled very often. I'm sure that was/is appealing to him. Anyone who lives in Sydney knows how
huge he has been for raising the profile of the club and the code in Sydney. We should have won in either 14 or 16, that's the
only thing that didn't go to plan.

 

[iameviljez]

You could quite easily put Fyfe, Martin and Dangerfield in that conversation and only 1/3 of them changed clubs (and whilst their careers aren't over, their best earning years are). Also Judd/Dangerfield both went home and not sure that either got that much more money. Franklin and Ablett were really the 2 that got monster offers and went for the money.

I would put Franklin and Ablett at least well above those three. Franklin is the best forward since Carey, GAJ the best mid since Lethal.
Who knows how close Dusty was to leaving?

 

[Partridge]

I would put Franklin and Ablett at least well above those three. Franklin is the best forward since Carey, GAJ the best mid since Lethal.
Who knows how close Dusty was to leaving?

Good question. He must have considered it, but on the other hand he gives the impression that he never looked like leaving either.

 

[RUNVS]

I think the length of the holiday increases each time.

Rory Thompson must be a complete junky then.

 

[Frank Grimes]

The Swans really needed to win a flag while he is reasonably close to peak form for it to be worth it. If they managed to win against the Bulldogs in the GF then I think Swans supporters wouldn't care if Buddy spent the last 2-3 years of his contract broken down or playing in the 2nds.

The Swans should be in the rebuild phase now. The pressures of the Salary cap shouldn't be as much as if they are paying a bunch of stars at their peak and having a tilt at a premiership.

 

[CaptainHowdy87]

God knows the 2016 Swans wouldn't have been favourites going into a grand final had their 2 key forwards been Xavier Richards and a rotation of Kurt Tippett/Callum Sinclair... People forget that. Buddy kicked 80 goals that year.

And had the rotten luck of rolling his ankle in the first 5 mins of the game.

 

[RUNVS]

The Swans really needed to win a flag while he is reasonably close to peak form for it to be worth it. If they managed to win against the Bulldogs in the GF then I think Swans supporters wouldn't care if Buddy spent the last 2-3 years of his contract broken down or playing in the 2nds.

The Swans should be in the rebuild phase now. The pressures of the Salary cap shouldn't be as much as if they are paying a bunch of stars at their peak and having a tilt at a premiership.

We are in rebuild phase now, have been for a few years.

Also we would have won the 2016 Grand Final if the umpiring had been up to standard.

 

[David Bondo]

Swans had one free kick from halfway through the first quarter to early in the fourth quarter in the 2016 GF.

Not to mention a couple of ticky tack 50m penalties against them.

One of the most disgraceful umpiring performances that completely overshadowed the result.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

Do the Swans rebuild quicker than other clubs? If so, that's where Longmire earns his cash.

They might not have as many top 10 picks as other clubs but they develop players and find extras.

They coulda shoulda won a flag with Franklin but the idea that his contract is going to leave them in some devastating long-term hole will, I think, be exposed in the next 3-4 years as one of the dumber memes that was sold to commentators.

Swans are bottom 4 now but heading in the right direction. If Franklin plays the next 2 years, great. If not, they'll be cherry ripe by the time that contract ends.

The issue comes if someone like Heeney or Parker or Mills or Papley leaves for money. They'll get every ounce of value in a trade for Heeney, Mills or Papley. Parker is the guy who you'd trade if you were aggressively rebuilding, but he'll probably stay and be captain next year and be their highest paid player after Franklin. If Parker was at North, he'd be packing his bags already. That's the difference.

 

[iameviljez]

And had the rotten luck of rolling his ankle in the first 5 mins of the game.

Also we would have won the 2016 Grand Final if the umpiring had been up to standard.

2016 GF, everything had to go wrong for Sydney to lose - but everything did. Buddy hurt, rub of the green extremely bad, and Boyd, JJ and Picken playing absolutely out of their skin.

 

[HairyO]

2016 GF, everything had to go wrong for Sydney to lose - but everything did. Buddy hurt, rub of the green extremely bad, and Boyd, JJ and Picken playing absolutely out of their skin.

Boyd played the game Buddy was meant to.

Should have won the Norm Smith.

 

[BF Tiger]

I would put Franklin and Ablett at least well above those three. Franklin is the best forward since Carey, GAJ the best mid since Lethal.
Who knows how close Dusty was to leaving?

I don't think Dusty was ever close to leaving to North Melbourne. Maybe seeing the pressure that came to Ablett, Judd and Buddy when they changed clubs had a say in that.

 

[iameviljez]

Boyd played the game Buddy was meant to.

Should have won the Norm Smith.

I don't agree with that, either. It was a gamewinning cameo, but it was a cameo nevertheless.

Personally, I would picked Josh Kennedy.

 

[HairyO]

I don't agree with that, either. It was a gamewinning cameo, but it was a cameo nevertheless.

Personally, I would picked Josh Kennedy.

3 goals and a number of big marks. Pinchhitting in the ruck. Was a brilliant modern CHF performance.

At least you didnt say JJ deserved it

NS rarely goes to losing player unless a freakish performance.

 

[RUNVS]

3 goals and a number of big marks. Pinchhitting in the ruck. Was a brilliant modern CHF performance.

At least you didnt say JJ deserved it

NS rarely goes to losing player unless a freakish performance.

Or unless he is Chris Judd. Still annoyed at that as it is arguable LRT deserves two Norm Smiths.

 

[iameviljez]

Or unless he is Chris Judd. Still annoyed at that as it is arguable LRT deserves two Norm Smiths.

From my POV, Judd was pretty clearly BOG. Good as LRT was, it wasn't a Norm-deserving performance.

 

[Alex09]

Swans had one free kick from halfway through the first quarter to early in the fourth quarter in the 2016 GF.

Not to mention a couple of ticky tack 50m penalties against them.

One of the most disgraceful umpiring performances that completely overshadowed the result.

As far as I am concerned the swans were the 2016 premiers. I watched that game in a room full of neutral supporters of other teams. Nobody could believe the stitch up that Sydney were receiving from the umpires. Never seen anything like it in 4 decades of watching footy, let alone a GF. I don't want to believe that AFL results are fixed but I will now never forget that game and always have doubt, it was that blatant.

 

[Number37]

And that $10m has to cover that pricey cost off living in Sydney that at least used to exist, so you can probably knock it down a few $$$

Buddy is getting COLA on top of his $10m.

 

[Schauermann]

At least you didnt say JJ deserved it

Was between Boyd, Kennedy and Picken.

 

[Aramis]

The money is not similar, it's not even close. Hawthorn were not squeezing ten million big ones into Buddy.

And for all that, he went close twice with Sydney. Two GFs they went in reasonably comfortable favourites, but lost them both.

I wouldn't say they were "reasonably comfortable" favourites in 2014... they were running hot, no doubt, but they were also getting their tyres over-pumped by the media (see, David King's analysis pre 14' GF). Alas, history will show they got absolutely pantsed.

 

[treefingers]

I wouldn't say they were "reasonably comfortable" favourites in 2014... they were running hot, no doubt, but they were also getting their tyres over-pumped by the media (see, David King's analysis pre 14' GF). Alas, history will show they got absolutely pantsed.

I think people forget that Hawthorn & Sydney both finished the season 17-5 with almost identical percentage of around 140, and they had one win & one loss against each other during the H&A season.

The hype around Sydney in the week of the GF was largely the Buddy factor, and the fact that Sydney won in 2012 (which was a much bigger upset imo.)

 

[iameviljez]

I think people forget that Hawthorn & Sydney both finished the season 17-5 with almost identical percentage of around 140, and they had one win & one loss against each other during the H&A season.

The hype around Sydney in the week of the GF was largely the Buddy factor, and the fact that Sydney won in 2012 (which was a much bigger upset imo.)

And the finals form. Hawthorn barely scraped through Port, Sydney cruised. They had top spot sewn up with a week to go and rested a few IIRC.

 

[Sweet Jesus]

As far as I am concerned the swans were the 2016 premiers.

Good luck with that.

Are there any other imaginary premiers on your list?

 

[Chinacats]

9 year deal too risky. Anything over 5 is a bit much.

 

[Cleric]

The AFL and Hawthorn thought the 9 year deal from Sydney wasn't legit, and was done solely so that Hawthorn wouldn't and couldn't match the offer, and would never be honoured by the Swans in the end.
So the AFL made sure that the offer would be honoured.
Swans were too smart for their own good.