Lance Franklin says there isn’t time to sit back and be content as the Sydney Swans prepare for next Friday night’s preliminary final at ANZ Stadium.

Speaking on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast on Thursday morning, the star forward said there had not been a drop in training intensity this week, despite last Saturday’s 24-point win over Fremantle securing this weekend off.

“We’ve got a full training session today and we had training on Tuesday, so we’ve trained pretty much every day to keep the boys on their toes and to get ready (for next Friday),” Franklin said this morning.

“There’s no time for resting or to be content with where we’re at.

“We need to be on our toes and be ready for next week and make sure we’re ready to go straight away, because we know that it’s going to be hot and it’s going to be on.”

Franklin, the winner of this year’s Coleman Medal, said the Swans had taken plenty of positives from last Saturday’s win over Fremantle, including the ability to step up when the game was on the line.

While Franklin’s two final quarter goals helped ignite the Swans, the forward said the performance of young midfielders Luke Parker and Dan Hannebery also impressed.


“I think on the weekend it was a number of players that stepped up when it counted,” he said.

“Luke Parker is an exceptional young player who stood up on the weekend and ‘Hanners’ (Dan Hannebery) did too.

“I think it was just a good team effort.

“We knew that the Dockers were going to come out and play the football they wanted to, and to the boys’ credit, we just dug in and did what we had to do and got ourselves in a really good position.”

The Swans will take on the winner of this Friday night’s semi-final between Geelong and North Melbourne next Friday night at ANZ Stadium, with the victor of preliminary final to progress to the 2014 AFL Grand Final.

Franklin, who will play in his fourth consecutive preliminary final next week, said his team were firmly focused on next Friday’s match, and could not afford to look any further ahead than their clash with either the Cats or the Kangaroos.

“You want to see how it unfolds to be honest,” he said.

“It doesn’t really matter who we play, but we’ve got this final next Friday, so we’ll see who wins out of Geelong and North Melbourne, and we’ve got to win that.

“We’ll take that game and see what happens after that.

“It’s going to be a huge game for the club and is something we’re really excited about and from there we’ll just see what happens.”

Franklin said he hoped to see a huge Swans fan base turn out for the preliminary final, and thanked the red and white fans for their support so far this season.

“The fans have been unbelievable this season,” he said.

“The turnout on the weekend behind the goals was unbelievable when we got up and about and started kicking away from the Dockers.

“They really got behind us and we love seeing the red and the white out there every week, and hopefully they can get out there again next Friday night and can turn it on for us.”