Buddy deal a year in the making

Lance Franklin is set to line up in a Sydney jumper next year. Digitally altered image. Source: HeraldSun

LANCE Franklin's plans to move to Sydney began soon after the 2012 Grand Final loss to the Swans.

Franklin's manager Liam Pickering contacted the Swans and said Franklin would like to play for them in 2014.

Talks were held during this season, before they were ramped up in the past eight weeks, culminating with today's stunning development — and nine-year deal worth $10 million.

Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland confirmed to the Herald Sun Franklin contacted Sydney and not vice versa.

"We got a general sense around the end of last season he would like to play for us,'' Ireland said.

"The difficulty was the Kurt Tippett thing was going through and we did that, and then nothing much happened.

"During the Liam indicated he was still keen to play for us if that was achievable and I guess probably over the past six to eight weeks, we had more conversations about it.''

Asked who contacted who, Ireland said: "Liam was the one who first indicated to us."

He admitted the club was stunned with the approach.

"It's not very often a player of his stature actually wants to approach you on the basis he wants to play for your club,'' Ireland said.

"Clearly, through the discussions along the say he loves the Hawthorn football club and the fishbowl of Melbourne has taken it s toll, and he wanted to get out of that.''

All Ireland's discussions with Franklin and his management will be investigated by the AFL for any potential rule breaches.

A statement from the league yesterday said it's Legal, Integrity and Compliance Department would interview key people.

The Swans coup has left Greater Western Sydney reeling, and the AFL blindsided.

Late last week they tabled an offer of $1.2 million over six years, well short of the Swans offer.

Ireland said Franklin's salary fitted into the cap, alongside the estimated $900,000 a year salary for Tippett.

"I don't want to go into the method of (payment) other than to say it's something that works with our salary cap,'' Ireland said.

He agreed it was a risk. "Once before I was involved in this sort of deal with Alastair Lynch (To Brisbane from Fitzroy) and he played 11 years after being recruited as a 26-year-old.''

Asked if the money was unconditional, Ireland said: "The contract is the contract.''

Despite the development, Ireland said the club was aware the Hawks had the ability to match the offer.

"The one thing we were respectful of, with free agency, is clearly Hawthorn have got an opportunity to match the offer, and so, we're not presumptuous to think Buddy is playing for us yet,'' Ireland said.

The official paperwork will be lodged on Friday.

Ireland hit out at critics of club's allowance.

"The reason why we were able to secure Kurt last year and hopefully secure Franklin this year, is because we've got enough space in the cap and the space in the cap comes about because players who were on our list will not be on our list, so therefore there is space,'' Ireland said.

"The reality is every player on our list shares in the cost of living allowance, it's in their contracts, the AFL know that, the AFL sees that, so there's no pool of cost of living for us to be able to hand it to players individually.

"People who spread that are not really honest about how it's used.''

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HAVE YOUR SAY IN THE CHAT WINDOW BELOW

The news comes after News Limited today revealed that the Sydney Swans had launched a last-minute offer to snare Franklin, with the offer believed to be in the vicinity of $7 million across five seasons.

The Giants sensationally tweeted today that they had taken their offer to Franklin, believed to be worth $2 million a season, off the table. 

AFL writer Jon Ralph doubts whether Sydney needs cost-of-living allowance for players and warns of repercussions as Buddy Franklin makes his move.

Giants coach Leon Cameron said GWS still had several experienced players on its radar, despite being knocked back by key targets Franklin and Essendon ruckman Tom Bellchambers, who signed a two-year extension at Windy Hill.

"You're not going to lie about it (and it is a blow) but we've gone on the record this year that we're looking for mature-age players to come into our football club to help our young list ... and Lance was one of five or six that we've been looking at throughout the year," Cameron said.

"We're confident in where we're heading, we're confident in our list management strategy.

"To fast track our performance we need some players to join our football club and we're very confident we'll do that in the next couple of weeks."

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