Lance 'Buddy' Franklin, please come back.
Why would he come back?
It would not surprise one bit if Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin never returned to the MCG after the treatment he received at the hands of Collingwood’s boo-squad Sunday afternoon.
It was truly reprehensible. No matter who or where you stand in the world, nobody needs to take that kind of sh*t. Especially a player of Franklin’s standing.
For my ten cents' worth, Lance Franklin is a pioneer of modern Australian Rules Football (AFL).
Take a quick look at other sports. The current crop of professional golfers have Tiger Woods to thank for their immediate wealth. In the NBA, the mega-rich have one Michael Jordan to thank, and the cricket world has Shane Warne to thank for its shift to commercialism. The comparable recipients of AFL wealth should be sending Lance Franklin an annual Christmas card—if that’s still a thing?
An aside, the bright folk in the room will also note that three of the four mentioned above shared the same playing number—23. And, I have no doubt, if Tiger defected to LIV golf and they introduced numbers, he too would wear 23! Zero chance!
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Yes, you’re correct, that unimaginable wealth is being distributed to the players, not the public. I was going to say spectators, or even supporters; imagine being a supporter?
But, consider for a minute, the ripple out effect. The sponsorship revenue, brought into sport by outstanding athletes, does indeed filter through to the public on many different levels.
Firstly, sports in general are now infinitely easier to consume via the multitude of mediums available and through the content filters media broadcasters are constantly looking to improve. Never have supporters been better informed or closer to the action.
Secondly, an athlete like Franklin inspires our younger generations to play footy; I would argue both male and female, of this there should be no doubt. And aspiration is the energy that drives young hearts to beat with the tune and dream to succeed. Take a poll of every AFL player under the age of 24 and ask them who their footy role model was growing up, and I’m betting Lance Franklin comes out on top.
And, lastly, it seems to be incumbent now on players to be available to the world through all the social media platforms that weave their way into our consciousness, often unmistakably at the expense of their own being.
But, hey, let’s face the facts: the majority of Collingwood’s boo-squad wouldn’t give a damn about Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or Lance Franklin; it’s just Jack Ginnivan or Hoddle Street!
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Back to Sunday afternoon and the hallowed MCG. The ground’s most recent honorarium—Shane Keith Warne—no doubt looked down in disgust. I would venture that neither Collingwood nor Sydney was close to Warne’s heart, but the ideals of sportsmanship and fair play unquestionably were.
Warne played alongside an indigenous Australian player in Jason Gillespie and battled against many cricketers of colour. Either way, he just played the game, always trying to find an edge that could give him the ascendancy, pushing the rules to their breaking point. Was he booed, though? I would say never, aside from a late Ashes tour where he received some sage advice from the Yorkshire cricketing public.
Warne would remember the 2010 AFL grand-final when his beloved St Kilda played a draw with Collingwood, only to lose version two. It’s likely that he despised Collingwood then, and after Sunday’s showing, those sentiments would only have been compounded.
Sure, Collingwood has since apologised to Lance Franklin for the behaviour of their fans. The sceptical among us won't have to dig too deep to remember similar offerings. In fact, Monday’s letter was signed off by captain Darcy Moore, coach Craig McRae, chief executive Craig Kelly, and, dare I say, ChatGPT.
"We apologise to the Sydney Swans and to Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin," they said in the letter.
Also adding, "The club does not support booing, particularly champions of the game. Yesterday was the first time we played the Swans at the MCG in a decade. It provided an opportunity to respect a champion of the game, and we fell short. Buddy is a great of Australian Rules Football—what he has achieved on the field over a long period of time demands a high level of respect."
Past champion and Sydney board member Michael O’Loughlin is on record as saying that he was crestfallen at the treatment handed out to Franklin. He fired: "The booing was disgraceful." O’Loughlin’s teammate, Adam Goodes, retired from the game because of similar crowd reactions.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need the rest of Australia to join in to help stamp this out. We can get up and talk and say how disappointed we are, but it’s gotten beyond a joke. We are tired, both physically and emotionally. You hear Eddie Betts talk about it, and you hear countless other people talk about it. I don’t know the reasons why. I am putting two and two together and coming up with an answer." O’Loughlin has clearly had enough.
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It must have been a dream.
I had it in my head that there was a sports movie where the coach of a much-maligned player left the bench and went to sit in the crowd, specifically where the malicious behaviour was emanating from. Sitting quietly watching the game, the derogatory comments ceased, his player began to flourish, and the team turned a losing game into a winning one without a whimper from the partisan crowd.
Maybe it is fiction, something we can only dream about. Behavioural change is complex on many levels. You could argue that such tendencies are hereditary and merely passed down through the generations. After all, football is a pretty insular game, irrespective of what the marketers say.
So, to break the status quo, I wanted to share an anecdote I heard this weekend. It came from local footy—a game between Winchelsea and Inverleigh. Both are regional clubs near Geelong, Victoria.
In short, Winchelsea were favoured to win; they lost by close to 40 points. It was a Winchelsea home game. Most observers would be right in expecting the home coach to be tearing strips of his players in the rooms. The Winchelsea players didn’t make it to the rooms. After the congratulatory formalities, to a man, they walked over to the nearby netball courts. It was a close game; they were there to support the Winchelsea girls, a reassuring show of solidarity.
You know the result: the girls won by a solitary goal.
When the men's coach was cornered after the game by a disgruntled supporter, his answer was perfect. "We don’t do that stuff—tearing strips off them—anymore, Archie. You can rest assured, though, that we’ll run the bloody legs off em at training this week!"
Slowly but surely, change can be affected.
As always, thank you for being here.
