Buddy powerless to stop gutsy Port
Neil Cordy
The Daily Telegraph, April 1

PORT Adelaide has announced its premiership credentials with an inspiring 23-point win over the Sydney Swans at the SCG.

Port came from 14 points down at halftime to make it back-to-back wins at the Swans home ground.

The Swans failed to convert a massive plus 21 (35-14) inside 50 advantage in the first half which was set up largely by Luke Parker and Josh Kennedy.

Lance Franklin kicked four for the night and had a hand in another three but Sydney had no other multiple goal kickers in a lopsided forward set up.

Ken Hinkley gave the toughest job in football to 11-gamer Dougal Howard who did well to contain Franklin’s influence along with the rest of their inexperienced backline.

The move of Howard onto Buddy was just one of a host of switches Hinkley make which turned the game on it’s head at halftime.

His move of Charlie Dixon into the ruck and Sam Pepper-Powell onto Parker proved pivotal as the visitors turned contested possession and clearances on their heads.

Buddy underrated? We’re serious
Jake Niall
SMH, March 31

When Lance Franklin signed that staggering nine-year deal with Sydney, an enraged AFL hierarchy was quick to warn the Swans that, regardless of how long Buddy played for them, the contract would count in the salary cap in each and every year, as specified.

Back then, the notion that a rising 27-year-old key forward could play for a further nine seasons seemed preposterous and the contract was regarded as a borderline rort. It was widely assumed - and I was among the sceptics - that Buddy wouldn't go the contractual distance. It's still highly doubtful. Hardly any AFL footballers play at 35 and even fewer key forwards are running around at that vintage. The game is too punishing.

But Franklin's physical talent is as preposterous as the contract he signed and, whereas Wayne Carey, Stephen Kernahan and Dermott Brereton were finished by their early 30s, Buddy remains not simply on the field, but ahead of it.

Last weekend, Franklin booted eight goals against a West Coast defence that featured multiple all-Australians who were made to look like smaller/slower kids chasing the biggest boy in the under 12s. If Jeremy McGovern's worth a million, as some within the free-agency circus have suggested, Buddy must be closer to a $2 million player than the modest $1.2m he's getting this year.

The word "freak'' is hackneyed and misused, in the same way that "tragedy'' is more appropriately applied to events such as the death of Phil Walsh than regulation football misfortune. Franklin, it follows, is one of few footballers whose capabilities warrant the F-word.

In 2018, a full decade after he booted 100 goals within a home-and-away season, Buddy remains the premier forward in the game. There's more debate about who's No. 2.  Josh Kennedy? Tom Lynch?

Yet, Franklin's seldom ranked as the best player in the AFL by either peers or pundits. Typically, the midfielder of the moment - in 2015, it was Nat Fyfe, in '16 Paddy Dangerfield and last year Dustin Martin - holds the unofficial crown and is voted the Most Valuable Player by the players, who share this era's uniform bias towards midfielders. Gary Ablett has been the players' MVP four times as often as Buddy's taken a club best and fairest (one).

So, we come to another preposterous thing about Franklin - that after 868 goals, four Coleman Medals and a highlight reel that challenges the elder Gary Ablett's, he's actually undersold. That's right. Buddy Franklin, the most watched and watchable footballer of his age, is underrated.

The players ranked him No.  4 in their pre-season top 50 on AFL.com.au, behind "Dusty'', ''Danger'' and Fyfe. He's seldom talked about as the premier player, even though, as the midfielders pass the baton, he's kept running laps alone in the key forward lane.

Josh Kennedy says Sydney captaincy was a challenge amid Swans’ horror start to 2017
Jon Ralph
The Daily Telegraph, April 1

Josh Kennedy says he has learned to love captaining Sydney despite its all-consuming focus and last year’s harsh introduction.

The Swans dropped their first six games of 2017 in a disastrous opening to the year but eventually made history as a September participant.

Kennedy had to endure a torrid introduction as skipper as injuries, poor form and bad luck conspired to thrust them into that 0-6 position. 

But all those dramas have faded into the memory bank as the Swans push for a 2-0 start to the season against the much-hyped Port Adelaide at the SCG. 

The four-time Bob Skilton Medallist admits that he has had to lift his singular focus as the club’s new captain 

He took on the task after the Swans conceded 2016 co-captains Kieren Jack and Jarrad McVeigh were not desperate to give up their roles.

Too that end, Kennedy believes he is growing as a leader.

“It sits well with me. It has been a challenge, no doubt about that. When I first took over people said, ‘Don’t change what you have been doing’,” he said.

“But I am not sure that’s the case. You certainly change the way you think, you have a much more broad focus at the football club.

“You think about the present, the future, so in regards to that it’s been a big challenge.

“I am someone who has been pretty driven and has had the tendency to have the blinkers on with my own preparation and getting the best out of myself.

“It’s been a good challenge and one that I have really enjoyed.”