{"id":377165,"date":"2024-03-18T02:06:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T03:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377165"},"modified":"2024-03-18T04:02:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:02:53","slug":"revealed-sydney-had-enough-of-buddy-before-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377165","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: Sydney 'had enough of Buddy' before retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been revealed that the Sydney Swans<\/a> grew tired of Lance 'Buddy' Franklin<\/a> as his star-studded career came to a close.<\/p>\n

9News' chief football reporter Tom Morris declared the Swans "had had enough" of Franklin in his final season with the club before retiring.<\/p>\n

\ufeffFranklin announced his retirement from the game last July<\/a>, days after hobbling off the field injured in what would be his last appearance for the Swans.<\/p>\n

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\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

After injuring his calf, the 36-year-old's playing days were numbered, capped by 354 top-grade games and 1066 goals \u2014 the fourth highest in VFL\/AFL history.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine's Footy Furnace<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Morris ssaid that the Swans and Franklin were ready to split after the forward signed a one-year contract extension in 2022.<\/p>\n

"The Swans would never say this publicly because Buddy was so good for them for so long, but make no mistake, the Swans had had enough of Buddy last year," he said.<\/p>\n

"They were ready to move on from Buddy last year and the fact that he retired without a press conference makes me think he was done with the Swans as well. It was time to part ways."<\/p>\n

Franklin opted for a farewell with minimum fuss instead of the usual fanfare.<\/p>\n

Bizarrely, he did not attend his retirement press conference<\/a> to formally announce the end of his legendary 18-year AFL<\/a> career.<\/p>\n

Despite reports that Franklin would snub his farewell match at the SCG, \ufeffFranklin did attend, performing a lap of honour<\/a> and waving goodbye to the red and white fans with his wife Jesinta and young children Tullulah and Rocky in August.<\/p>\n

\"Lance<\/p>\n

Morris' comments preceded \ufeffA\ufeffFL legend Leigh Matthews<\/a> as he voiced his "sacrilegious" verdict that the Swans are better without Franklin in their top 18.<\/p>\n

Sydney has kicked off their 2024 campaign in specular fashion with a 22-point win over Melbourne and a 33-point triumph over Collingwood.<\/p>\n

Since 2001, \ufeffevery time the Swans have started 2-0 they have gone on to play finals.<\/p>\n

Matthews declared\ufeff the Swans are looking improved from last season, while he also lauded the club's recruitment of ruck Brodie Grundy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"I think it's almost sacrilegious to declare that the Swans are better without Buddy Franklin," Matthews said.<\/p>\n

"Now, you are talking [about] the veteran Buddy Franklin, the 36-year-old.<\/p>\n

"But him retiring and going out of the Swans team means they have a big chunk of salary cap money, which enabled them to get Brodie Grundy.<\/p>\n

"So I reckon minus Buddy, plus Grundy is making the Swans a better team.<\/p>\n

\"Grundy<\/p>\n

"They have stayed up around the mark for most of this century, the Swans. Their list management has been outstanding. I think the Grundy thing just sort of happened but the fact that Buddy's career had come to an end and they had the money to pay Brodie Grundy, who is not a superstar ruckman, but he is a really competitive one who helps at ground level.<\/p>\n

"He is not that great in the air, OK at the hit outs, doesn't mark the ball much, but he gets in after the ball at ground level which helps the whole Swans' clearance game.<\/p>\n

"So, I think the Swans are better off for Brodie in and Buddy out."<\/p>\n

Geelong great Jimmy Bartel<\/a> also agreed Sydney had pulled off the great escape with their new-look forward line.<\/p>\n

"The first two games show that. Logan McDonald has definitely become a focal point and you can throw in (Joel) Amartey and you throw in (Hayden) McClean going forward," he said.<\/p>\n

"You have (Will) Hayward who takes the goal square at the moment, there are a few more different options, but he (Franklin) did leave a massive hole.<\/p>\n

"We are talking about one of the all-time greats. They have done well to not just recover but actually fill the void very quickly."<\/p>\n

To start the season, the efforts of\ufeff Logan McDonald (five goals), Joel Amartey (one), Hayden McClean (three), Will Hayward (two) and Isaac Heeney (three) have proved the Swans are flourishing without a key forward signing in the absence of Franklin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been revealed that the Sydney Swans grew tired of Lance 'Buddy' Franklin as his star-studded career came to a close. 9News' chief football […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=377165"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377169,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377165\/revisions\/377169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}