{"id":377663,"date":"2024-03-19T18:34:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377663"},"modified":"2024-03-19T21:03:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T21:03:42","slug":"swans-coach-longmire-laughs-off-buddy-rumour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377663","title":{"rendered":"Swans coach Longmire laughs off Buddy rumour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney<\/a> coach John Longmire<\/a> has quashed suggestions that the Swans "had enough" of former superstar forward Lance Franklin before his retirement during the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

9News' chief football reporter Tom Morris declared the Swans were over Franklin in his final season<\/a> 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

READ MORE:<\/strong> Knights swing the axe as legend predicts epic fall<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Speaking on Nine's Footy Furnace<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Morris said 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," Morris said.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/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

However, Longmire was quick to laugh off Morris' comments on Tuesday, declaring his love and respect for the 354-gamer has not ever waivered.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I love Lance, he was a super player for us," Longmire said.<\/p>\n

"I personally had a great relationship with him which I will always treasure."<\/p>\n

\"Sydney<\/p>\n

Franklin kicked 11066 goals \u2014 the fourth highest in VFL\/AFL history.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the 2012 premiership coach has expressed his delight at the early season success of both his Swans and fellow New South Wales club, the GWS Giants.<\/p>\n

Both sides have kicked off the year 2-0, sitting in the top two spots of the ladder heading into round two.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"We just think it's been a great start for footy in NSW," Longmire said.<\/p>\n

\"Grundy\"<\/p>\n

"I think it's really, really important for the code up here to be able to have the opening round, which was a great initiative from the AFL and generated real interest in the game."<\/p>\n

Longmire has called on Sydney fans to come out again in full force to fill out the SCG ahead of their clash with Essendon on Saturday night.\ufeff<\/p>\n

He hopes the "momentum" started in round zero will carry on throughout 2024.\ufeff<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/sydneyswans\/status\/1769997237751627931<\/a><\/p>\n

"We had a sellout crowd here (at the SCG) for the Opening Round and so did the Giants. I'm hoping it's as big a crowd as we can get here on Saturday night because we want to back the momentum in the state," Longmire said.<\/p>\n

"I think it's great for the clubs, but it's also great for the code. And I think that's really important to the game."<\/p>\n

\ufeffSydney host Essendon at the SCG on Saturday night, looking for their third win of 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney coach John Longmire has quashed suggestions that the Swans "had enough" of former superstar forward Lance Franklin before his retirement during the 2023 season. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377665,"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\/377663"}],"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=377663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377669,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377663\/revisions\/377669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/377665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}