Lance Franklin has posted a statistical mark that has been achieved only once before in Swans history … 50 goals in a season for the sixth time.
Only Bob Pratt, the Swans’ all-time leading goal-kicker, is in the record books with six seasons of 50+ goals in 1932-36 and 1939.
Franklin’s two goals against St Kilda on Sunday evening took his season tally to an even 50 and comes on top of 50+ seasons in 2014, ’16, ’17, ’18 and ‘21.
‘Bud’ goes one ahead of Barry Hall, who had five 50+ seasons with the club, and two clear of Tony Lockett and Ted Johnson.
He also moved up one position to outright fourth on the all-time Swans goal-kicking list, now with 465 after going past Adam Goodes’ 464. He’s now just two goals behind Hall’s 467.
As the Swans look forward to a week off ahead of the qualifying final against Melbourne at the MCG on 2 September, three players have also banked what might be considered the midfielder’s equivalent of a 500-possession season.
Callum Mills (547) has his first, while Luke Parker (540) now has seven and Jake Lloyd (506) five.
Only retiring great Josh Kennedy, with 10x 500-possession seasons for the club, has more than Parker and Daryn Cresswell, while Lloyd shares the next rung on the ladder with Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack, Barry Mitchell and ex-Swan Dan Hannebery, who retired with 30 possessions for St Kilda against the Swans on Sunday.
Ryan O’Keefe is next on the ladder of 500 possessions with four, while Paul Kelly, Brett Kirk, Wayne Schwass, Norm Goss, Greg Williams and Nick Malceski have three each.
Chad Warner, with 483 possessions in the home-and-away season, heads into the finals set to become just the 24th Swans player to have 500 possessions in a season since the introduction of possession statistics in 1965.
Parker, too, has gone to outright eighth on the Swans all-time games list with his 257th game on Sunday, moving one ahead of Heath Grundy and Kieren Jack.
He also is now equal sixth on the all-time win list, having gone one ahead of Jack’s 159 to equal Grundy’s 160.
The Swans’ 16-win 2022 home-and-away season also goes into the record books as the equal fourth best in club history behind only the 17-win seasons of 2014 and 2016, and the 16 wins a draw season of 1996.
It’s the equal of the 16 wins in the 18-game seasons of 1935 and ‘36, the 20-game season of 1945, and the 22-game seasons of 1986, 1996, 2012 and 2015.
