Toast Lance Franklin - do you remember him more as a Hawk or Swan?

[Taper]

Now that Buddy has retired it's a good time to reflect back on what was an amazing career.
Here's a graph of his stats at the Hawks and Swans.

If you split his tenures as two separate careers you get two players who had very good careers.
It'll be interesting to see if he's remembered more as a Hawk or as a Swan.

Do you remember him more as a Hawk or as a Swan?

 

[RUNVS]

There needs to be a "both" option.

4 All Australians at both clubs, 2 Coleman medals at both clubs.

Yes he won two flags for the Hawks and none at the Swans, but he also kicked his 1000th goal in Swans colours, and I know from history that Tony Lockett

Tony Lockett

Age

58

Ht

191cm

Wt

108kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.2

3star

K

8.4

3star

HB

1.8

2star

M

6.3

5star

T

0.5

3star

G

4.8

5star

No current season stats available

D

8.2

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.6

3star

M

4.0

4star

T

0.0

1star

G

1.4

5star

's most replayed moment was his 1300th goal so it will likely be Buddy's too.

He accomplished way too much at both clubs to say he will be remembered as a Hawk or Swan.

 

[Taper]

There needs to be a "both" option.

4 All Australians at both clubs, 2 Coleman medals at both clubs.

Yes he won two flags for the Hawks and none at the Swans, but he also kicked his 1000th goal in Swans colours, and I know from history that Tony Lockett's most replayed moment was his 1300th goal so it will likely be Buddy's too.

He accomplished way too much at both clubs to say he will be remembered as a Hawk or Swan.

Do you think he'll be remembered equally as both?
I know some will remember him more as a Hawk, others will remember him more as a Swan.
I added both equally as I can see people remembering him equally as both.

 

[RUNVS]

Do you think he'll be remembered equally as both?
I know some will remember him more as a Hawk, others will remember him more as a Swan.
I added both equally as I can see people remembering him equally as both.

Yes I think as both. He got 8 All Australians, and if 6 or 7 of them were with the one club then the answer would be obvious, but he got 4 a piece, same with the Coleman's, half of his Coleman's were at Hawthorn, half at the Swans.

Basically by picking Hawthorn or Sydney you are cutting out half his career, him playing a very similar number of games at both clubs too.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Hawks

 

[Monocle]

Hawk.

 

[eaglespremiers]

Hawks

 

[The 747]

Both, but his best work was done at the Hawks.

 

[Power Raid]

who would begrudge either club claiming their man?

 

[Power Raid]

Even Melbourne deserves to have some claim over Jack Watts

 

[RUNVS]

Even Melbourne deserves to have some claim over Jack Watts

Except Melbourne would prefer Watts is remembered as a Port Adelaide player.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Its probably too early to measure that. Recency bias and all that. Right now as a Swan, but as time goes on from him being an almost-current Swan that may change.

 

[peetoo]

Undewhelming….lack of interest?

 

[Macca180]

Swan now.

It's the 1000 goal night that sticks with me.

 

[SSSSSS]

Hawk. Did his best work there.

 

[Sphynx]

I think it will be as a Swan long term tbh.

Some similarities with Lockett, both were far better at their first clubs.

But recency bias plays a big part in it and Franklin played a far higher % of his footy at his second club than Lockett did.

His 1000 goal, similar to Lockett's record breaking goal will be the clip that is played most regarding him over the next decade(s)

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Whilst he almost played the same amount of games for both clubs I will remember him as a Hawk.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

His best was at Hawthorn, but he will be remembered as a Swan

At the hawks he was regarded as a talent, but was never really given his dues. The moment he crossed to the swans he became the face of the game almost

 

[barbster]

Where is the premiership tally?

 

[BG32]

It sucks that he hasn't been at his best for years now. The Hathorn Buddy was an absolute monster to contain

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Hawks and easily. I appreciate what he’s done for us but his best years were with Hawthorn. Still a farce he didn’t go close to the Brownlow that 08 year I think it was.

 

[Taper]

Yes I think as both. He got 8 All Australians, and if 6 or 7 of them were with the one club then the answer would be obvious, but he got 4 a piece, same with the Coleman's, half of his Coleman's were at Hawthorn, half at the Swans.

Basically by picking Hawthorn or Sydney you are cutting out half his career, him playing a very similar number of games at both clubs too.

Would you say Lance Franklin at Sydney has been a success despite the Swans not winning any silverware during his time there?
I remember people saying Chris Judd was a failure at Carlton because the Blues paid him big money and have no silverware to show for it.

 

[RUNVS]

Would you say Lance Franklin at Sydney has been a success despite the Swans not winning any silverware during his time there?
I remember people saying Chris Judd was a failure at Carlton because the Blues paid him big money and have no silverware to show for it.

He played 170 games for us and kicked almost 500 goals. You can't say that has been anything other than a success.

Any club would pay $1 million a season to get that kind of output from their key forward.

 

[Taper]

He played 170 games for us and kicked almost 500 goals. You can't say that has been anything other than a success.

Any club would pay $1 million a season to get that kind of output from their key forward.

Footy fans say premierships are the only metric that matters when it comes to measuring success hence why I brought it up.
I remember people were saying Dangerfield's tenure with us had been a failure because we hadn't won any silverware during his time here, but they changed their tune after we won the flag last year.

 

[RUNVS]

Footy fans say premierships are the only metric that matters when it comes to measuring success hence why I brought it up.
I remember people were saying Dangerfield's tenure with us had been a failure because we hadn't won any silverware during his time here, but they changed their tune after we won the flag last year.

To me though there is a flaw in the logic, as it suggests Buddy moved to Sydney for premiership success. He didn't. Yes Buddy wanted premiership success but most of all I get the impression he wanted out of the Melbourne fishbowl. He wanted to be able to go to the shops and not get swarmed. That left 4 clubs he could go to, Sydney, GWS, Gold Coast and Brisbane and of those 4 Sydney, at the end of 2013 anyway, was looking way way way more likely to win a flag than the other three.

Buddy wanted out of an AFL state, he had 4 clubs to pick from and he picked the club of those 4 that looked like it had the best shot at a premiership, but his primary reason for going to Sydney was not "I think Sydney has a better shot at flags than Hawthorn". Buddy knew Hawthorn could win more flags, I am sure he did, but he wanted to go anyway.

I wish he won a flag at Sydney, he deserved it, and had the umpiring been fair in 2016 he likely would have, but no one could ever say 4 All Australians and 2 Coleman medals was a failure.