Sydney — the city and the club — has become Franklin’s home and today former Swans chairman Richard Colless lays bare the clandestine negotiations that landed Franklin’s prized signature in 2013. | Andrew Webster
Fair enough, too, because Franklin looked like a greased pig, his arms shimmering under the SCG lights.
lays bare the clandestine negotiations that landed Franklin’s prized signature in 2013, including how the AFL had actively tried to sign the champion full-forward for the fledgling GWS Giants.“Lance was going to do one of two things: stay at Hawthorn or play with the Swans,” Colless says. “The AFL, in breach of all the rules they had just created in relation to free agency, were dealing with Lance and his manager directly, trying to lure him to GWS.
It remains one of the true miracles of modern football that the story never got out. One reporter had wind of it but couldn’t stand it up. Franklin’s former Hawthorn teammates have recently said they knew something was afoot because he was sneaking off to take phone calls away from the group and giving away little when he returned.
“We took a view that they [Hawthorn] wouldn’t entertain a nine-year contract,” Colless says. “Money wasn’t the issue — but the term of the contract was. And that proved to be the case.”
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