What were you doing on Sunday afternoon 27 March 2005? Most of us who were even alive back then wouldn’t have any idea. Not Buddy Franklin. He was at the SCG making his AFL debut.
He was 56 days beyond his 18th birthday, wearing jumper #38 in a new-look Hawthorn side coached for the first time by Alastair Clarkson after they’d finished 15th in 2004.
The quietly-spoken Indigenous youngster, son of Lance Franklin Sr and Ursula Franklin (nee Kickett), was heading into the world of the big football unknown.
From the tiny town of Dowerin in the West Australian wheatbelt 156km north-east of Perth via Wesley College in Perth, where he finished his education on a sporting scholarship, and one senior game in the WAFL with Perth, Franklin had represented WA at the 2004 AFL Under 18 championships in Melbourne.
WA had finished bottom of division one at the carnival, but Franklin was drafted at pick #5 by Hawthorn in a 2004 National Draft in which Sydney, having traded their first pick at #15 to Melbourne for Darren Jolly, picked up Jarred Moore (#31) and Geelong cast-off David Spriggs (#47) and re-drafted Heath James (#61).
The top 10 were #1 Brett Deledio (Richmond), #2 Jarryd Roughead (Hawthorn), #3 Ryan Griffen (W/Bulldogs), #4 Richard Tambling (Richmond), #5 Lance Franklin, #6 Tom Williams (W/Bulldogs), #7 Jordan Lewis (Hawthorn), #8 John Meesen (Adelaide), #9 Jordan Russell (Carlton) and #10 Chris Egan (Collingwood).
It was a top 10 that has delivered vastly different returns – Franklin (349 games) tops the list from Lewis (319), Roughead (283), Deledio (275) and Griffen (257), but it tails off badly to Russell (125), Tambling (124), Williams (85), Egan (27) and Meesen (6).
Sydney had finished fifth in 2004 and hopes were high going into their fourth season under Paul Roos as the AFL prepared to welcome the future Hall of Fame legend to their playing ranks.
That the Swans won by 63 points in a year in which they would go on to claim the flag was no surprise. Paul Williams had 23 possessions and kicked a goal to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes, Jude Bolton had 18 possessions and a goal for two votes, and Jolly had 15 possessions, three goals and 24 hit-outs for one vote. Franklin had six possessions and went goalless.
Can you remember the Sydney side that day? Captained by Stuart Maxfield in his 285th and fifth-last game before retirement at Round 6, in notional position it was:
B: Jared Crouch, Leo Barry, Lewis Roberts-Thomson
HB: Tadhg Kennelly, Craig Bolton, Matthew Nicks
C: Paul Williams, Jude Bolton, Stuart Maxfield (capt)
HF: Ben Mathews, Adam Goodes, Amon Buchanan
F: Nick Davis, Barry Hall, Jason Ball
R: Darren Jolly, Ryan O’Keefe, Brett Kirk
INT: Jarrad McVeigh, Paul Bevan, Adam Schneider, Stephen Doyle
What if retrospectively you could ask each of those players about the new Hawthorn youngster and what they expected of him? Most would have shaken their head and said ‘who knows?’. None would have forecast the extraordinary career that has unfolded.
When Franklin awakes on Thursday (8 June), set to become the 22nd player in AFL history to reach 350 AFL games when the Swans host St Kilda in the Pride Game at the SCG, he will have had 6647 sleeps since he woke as an about-to-be AFL debutant in 2005.
In that time a litre of petrol has virtually doubled in price from $1.04, a pot of beer has more than trebled from $2.25 back then, and no less than 1685 other AFL players have debuted. Only 665 of them are still playing. Franklin has outlasted 1020.
Not one player in the League before Franklin is still playing. Eddie Betts, who debuted for Carlton the day before, finished up in Round 23, 2021, and David Mundy, a Fremantle first-gamer five weeks after Franklin’s debut, finished in Round 23 last year.
In the 19 seasons in which Franklin has been part of the AFL only Mundy (376 games), Collingwood 2006 debutant Scott Pendlebury (369 games), Geelong 2007 debutant Joel Selwood (355 games) and Betts (350) have played more games.
Interestingly, Mundy was pick #19 in the 2003 Draft, Pendlebury pick #5 in 2005, Selwood pick #7 in 2006, and Betts was pick #3 in the 2004 Pre-Season Draft.
He was taken behind Trent Knobel, who went from St Kilda to Richmond, and Blake Caracella, from Brisbane to Collingwood, in the Pre-Season Draft after 71 players were taken from the same pool in the National Draft.
Franklin’s 1057 goals in the same era is far and away the most. Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt and Geelong’s Tom Hawkins, who debuted in 2007, have 771 and 767 respectively. And his 219 wins is bettered only by Selwood (259), Hawkins (240) and Pendlebury (223).
Among current Swans players, Franklin’s 2005 debut was five years earlier than Sam Reid’s 2010 introduction. Luke Parker followed in 2011, Harry Cunningham in 2012 and Dane Rampe in 2013.
Every other current Sydney player has joined the League during Franklin’s time at the SCG, with Jake Lloyd having debuted in the great man’s fifth game in red and white in Round 5, 2014.
There have been 62 new Swans since Franklin became player #1385 on the club’s all-time list, and precisely half of them are no longer at the club.
When Franklin made his AFL debut Corey Warner, the youngest Swans player this year, was not even 18 months old. The Gold Coast Suns and the GWS Giants were six years and seven years from even being established.
More broadly, the remarkable Franklin career has seen eight changes in the Australian Prime Minister – from John Howard through Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Rudd again, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albenese – and the Australian population has grown by almost a third to more than 26million.
There have been four US presidents – George Bush Jr, Barrack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden – and six British Prime Ministers – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Suna.
NSW has had no less than nine Premiers during the Franklin career – Bob Carr, Morris Iemma, Nathan Rees, Kristina Keneally, Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird, Gladys Berejiklian, Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns.
There have been 76 different AFL coaches – 11 who have been in charge of two clubs and Brett Ratten, who has been at the helm of now three after his elevation to a caretaking role at North.
Franklin has climbed to equal fourth on the AFL goal-kicking list at 1057, level with Doug Wade and behind only Jason Dunstall (1254), Gordon Coventry (1299) and Tony Lockett (1360).
His Swans career alone of 167 games, 110 wins, 477 goals and 104 Brownlow Medal votes ranks among the club greats. Only 51 of 1447 players all-time have played more games, and only Bob Pratt (681) and Michael O’Loughlin (521) have kicked more goals. Only Bob Skilton (180), Adam Goodes (163), Josh Kennedy (146), Luke Parker (142), Ron Clegg (121) and Herbie Matthews (117) have polled more Brownlow votes.
Franklin’s 28 career finals is equal 10th on the all-time AFL list, and despite arriving at the Swans 118 years into the club’s history his 14 Swans finals has been topped by only 23 Swans players.
His combined 328 games in jumper #23 is second in the AFL all-time behind only Andrew McLeod’s 340 games in #23 for Adelaide, remembering that he played his first 20 games at Hawthorn in #38 and played once in #67 for the Swans in 2017 as part of the Indigenous Round celebrations.
His 1031 goals in jumper #23 is a League record, ahead of Doug Wade’s 834 in #23 for Geelong.
And, in proof of Franklin’s extraordinary resilience over going on two decades, when he steps out against St Kilda in game #350 he will be aged 36 years 129 days – the fourth-oldest Swans player in history.
At the top of this list is Bill Fraser, who debuted at 30 years 40 days in 1897 and finished at 37 years 53 days in his 88th game in 1904. Arthur Hiskins, who played 185 games from 1908-1923 and retired at 37 years 27 days, is second-oldest ahead of Bill Windley, another member of the club’s first side who was 37 years five days in his 129th and last game in 1905.
Franklin will move to 51 on the list of oldest players all-time in his 350th, and if he was to play in Round 24 he’d be at 39. Among those he would go past in that time are Kade Simpson, Roger Merrett, Gary Ablett Jr, Tony Liberatore, John Rantall and Kevin Bartlett.
It will be a day to remember where you were and what you were doing!!
Be part of history next Thursday night as Buddy notches up game number 350. Secure your seat at Sydney Swans v St Kilda, Thursday, June 8 at the SCG. Get your tickets HERE.
