We bring you the latest news from the newspapers across the country relating to the Swans in the latest Swans in the media.
Bud's master class
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, March 23
THE greatest goalkicker ever and the most exciting forward in modern football ... together.
It’s an image made in Sydney Swans heaven, but it has become reality this week now that Tony Lockett is working with Lance Franklin.
They were locked in conversation for more than 15 minutes in their first ever training session as Franklin prepares for the Swans’ round-one clash with Port Adelaide at the SCG on Saturday.
Appropriately they spent a lot of the time in Plugger’s pocket, where he booted his record-breaking 1300th goal against Collingwood in 1999.
It’s also a favourite spot for Franklin, who loves the members’ side of the SCG and has landed plenty of majors from close to the boundary from inside and outside the 50-metre arc.
I hope I can do dad proud
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, March 23
WHEN Swans draftee Oliver Florent heard that he would make his debut in Saturday’s round one match against Port Adelaide it didn’t take long for his thoughts to turn to his late father Andrew.
Andrew Florent played Davis Cup for Australia and was a guiding light for Ollie throughout his junior years but died in August last year after a long battle with colon cancer.
He certainly would have been proud of his son’s effort over the last five months. After being taken at pick 11 in the draft the teenager has simply bashed the selection door down with his form in the JLT series and broken into a Swans team whose last serious outing was in the grand final.
“I’m definitely thinking about dad,” Florent told the Daily Telegraph.
“Hopefully I can do him proud on the night, I know he’ll be watching. He’s taught me a lot of things about being a professional athlete and hopefully I can put those things into action.”
Tippett out to put tough 2016 season behind him
Adrian Warren
SMH, AAP, March 23
Sydney ruckman-forward Kurt Tippett is determined to strike the right balance between the two duties after a difficult end to the last season.
Following an injury-plagued back half of 2016 in which his form was widely questioned and his goal output declined, Tippett is raring to go off the back of a ‘‘fantastic’’ pre-season.
His tally of 17 goals last year was the equal lowest of his career along with his debut season in 2008 with Adelaide.
He was in arguably career-best form through the latter part of 2015 and first half of 2016, but things turned sour in mid-season when he missed eight matches with a hamstring tendon injury.
Sorry, Cats, I cheer for the red and white
Samantha Armytage
Herald Sun, March 22
THE new footy season is almost upon us; here I am writing about the game but before I begin I must confess: I grew up in country NSW.
Although we were reasonably close to the “Mexican” border, I was raised not only on a sheep-and-cattle property, but on a diet of rugby league and became a Parramatta Eels fan at the age of eight after Dad handed me a Peter Sterling footy card from the newspaper one random day.
But my home town of Wagga Wagga is the sporting equivalent of Switzerland so all the football codes exist together, harmoniously.
And don’t even get me started me on how many sporting superstars we’ve produced.
But I digress.
