Was Lance Franklin worth $10 million? If the Swans saw another Buddy coming, premiership or no premiership, they would only have two questions. How long can we have you, and where do we sign?
Exactly a decade ago, the Sydney Swans signed their 32,452nd member, a new record. For a club that, in the bad old days, could only dream of being a basket case , it was some achievement. Then chief executive Andrew Ireland said that one day the Swans aspired to reach 40,000.
If anyone is in a position to assess the cost and the benefit, it would be the Swans themselves. But if you ask the club if it has done well out of Buddy you might be laughed, if not marched, out of the back office. Average home crowds topped 32,000 for Franklin’s first five years, a long-term consistency of support the Swans had never previously reached.
As a Bloods widower, cajoled into watching them every weekend by a spousal Swans tragic, all I can say is that I have often sneakily wished they were my team. I doubt there’s any club in any competition that repeatedly offers such good value. I wish I could buy them for how the rest of the AFL rates them and sell them for what they deliver.Franklin won two premierships in the nine seasons he played at Hawthorn, but he sang the team song more frequently with the Swans.