‘The greatest?’ Buddy mural unveiled in Darlinghurst
James Buckley
SMH, May 29
A mural of Swans superstar Lance Franklin was unveiled in Darlinghurst on Monday as one of three artworks commissioned by the AFL across the country to celebrate Indigenous round.
Two more will be unveiled in Melbourne on Wednesday - one of Sir Doug Nicholls, the first Aboriginal to receive a knighthood, and one of ex-footballer Polly Farmer, who has spent his retirement helping young Indigenous people through his foundation.
Franklin's colourful mural depicts the star forward celebrating a goal in front of a splash of red, blue, green, orange, black and white encompassing circles which represent all 18 AFL clubs.
The artwork poses a simple question: "One of the greats or the greatest?"
A compelling case can certainly be presented for the latter, including Franklin's latest achievement in becoming just the second league footballer after Tony Lockett to boot 300-plus goals for two AFL or VFL clubs.
Asked if Buddy was the 'greatest' on the Swans' esteemed list of Indigenous greats, which includes Adam Goodes and Michael O'Loughlin, coach John Longmire wouldn't be drawn.
"You're not going to get a comparison from me, Franklin's not bad," Longmire said. "If you ask Mick he'd certainly be rating himself the best with Goodes and Franklin fighting it out for second spot, but I'm not going to get involved with that.
"All three have made an amazing contribution, and still do to our footy club. Lance is obviously playing, Mick and Adam were in last week. We were fortunate enough to have a really close relationship with those guys as well and still do to this day. They still keep on giving to the footy club and that's wonderful."
Bye-bye to rest for Buddy
Ben Horne
The Daily Telegraph, May 29
Thrown into the lake: The Swans defenders battle to fill the hole left by Mills
Matt Balmer
Fox Sports, May 29
IT WAS a bizarre Thursday in Sydney.
Young Swan Callum Mills was throwing a ball in the Moore Park precinct with some teammates, when Mills tripped and fell.
The end result? A broken foot for Mills, set to keep him out for the remainder of the season.
While that’s a strange story in itself, it presents a problem that needs to be solved.
The injury to the 2016 Rising Star, led to a recall for Harry Marsh, who collected 11 disposals and had two rebound 50s — while they also handed a debut to 2017 pick no. 53 Ryley Stoddart.
Structurally, Marsh was given the first crack at the Mills role — but Sydney coach John Longmire was far from convincing in his post-match press conference that Marsh was going to be the permanent replacement in 2018.
“I thought his last ten minutes in the final quarter were pretty good,” Longmire said of Marsh.
“We’ve just got to find the person that needs to play the role that particular week and he was that player this week.”
