Four Points: Like Warner, Buddy finds it hard to say goodbye

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This was not the way to farewell Lance Franklin in Melbourne, and possibly from the game; limping to the bench, subbed out early with a calf injury.

Is it the end? Probably. Maybe. It will be a question of whether the Swans yet play finals and, if so, do they have time for the old man of football to get over the old footballer injury to a calf muscle?

Lance Franklin and coach John Longmire.Credit: Getty Images

It is highly unlikely that Franklin could go around again next year, though no one wants to be the one to say that. Sydney have avoided being definitive on the issue and Franklin has teased at the idea of playing on. The fact that we don’t know yet is in itself quite odd.

There is something of David Warner about that – wanting to go out when and how he decides. True, Franklin is probably the best player of his generation while Warner was a very good player, but sport moves on. Hoping that they have that last brilliant performance left in them when results suggest otherwise is unrealistic.

Franklin has been serviceable, but far from damaging. He kicked more goals in his debut year than this campaign. Yes, he played 20 games in 2005 to 13 games now, so let’s put it another way: his first season was the only year other than this that he has averaged less than two goals a game. For most of his career he has averaged more than three, and in his pomp it was four.

If this sounds disrespectful, it’s not meant to be. Franklin is one of the all-time greats, but we also operate in a results-based performance industry.

A measure of an organisation is how you treat your champions and Sydney is at pains to be respectful of theirs.

A measure of an organisation is how you treat your champions and Sydney are at pains to be respectful of theirs. But we don’t really need to go through a charade that he will play on. The Swans are ready for the next generation to assume his role, and they will be better for it. Hopefully there is scope for some form of proper send-off.

There was a symmetry between the sight of Franklin on the bench and Tom Hawkins limping off late in Geelong’s loss at home to Freo. The two key forwards of last year’s grand final both injured and limping as their clubs struggle to make finals.

Presently they are both out of the eight and hopeful of results falling their way to avoid making AFL history (ie since 1990) by being the first grand finalists to both miss finals the next season (in the VFL-AFL it has not happened since 1963, when Carlton and Essendon missed the final four).

Hawkins has had a far better year than Franklin and remains central to the Cats’ attack and therefore their hopes of yet mounting something meaningful this campaign. He has booted 47 goals in 19 games, to Franklin’s 19 in 13. Whether they can make it over the next month without him and Mark Blicavs, and then return to have a meaningful impact in the finals, is the question.

Petty obvious

Melbourne have found their forward structure. The bravery to ignore names, reputations and salaries and look at results has uncovered their best forward mix.

Harrison Petty has demanded he be a first-choice selection ahead of Brodie Grundy and Ben Brown. Jacob van Rooyen, who has looked good but not reliably ready, must also be persisted with. Bayley Fritsch is out until finals but you would be seeking other candidates to squeeze out for him before you looked at Jake Melksham.

Teacher’s Pet: Demons coach Simon Goodwin gave Harrison Petty the nod in attack over some more experienced options.Credit: AFL Photos

With Grundy potentially not returning it asks more of Max Gawn to ruck almost unaided (van Rooyen and Petty both did helped on Sunday). But an endurance beast, Gawn plainly relishes being a 95-per-cent-game-time ruckman (coincidentally, Grundy plays his best doing that).

Gawn was superb on Sunday and swung the game back to Melbourne. There isn’t a significant body of work yet to know if Patrick Dangerfield has been indoctrinated into commentator hyperbole or whether he has resisted it like Luke Hodge, but the Geelong Brownlow medallist was given to describe Max Gawn’s second half against Richmond as one of the best halves he had ever seen.

It did not look like he was exaggerating. Gawn was superb.

Not all about Charlie

Carlton now not only should make the eight, but unlike others with pretensions to finals, they deserve to play finals. After beating the top two teams in a matter of weeks, they are not a finalist poised to make up the numbers.

In 19 rounds the Blues have occupied 14 different positions on the ladder, from second to 15th. They now looked deserving of remaining in the eight.

Charlie Curnow, and Carlton, are peaking at the business end.Credit: AFL Photos

Yes it was again about Charlie Curnow booting a bag, but it was more than that. Carlton played with a cohesion and intensity that was palpably absent during their mid-year slump. They belted Collingwood around the ball and at stoppages, where they were hungrier and tougher and looked sharper once they got the ball to the outside of the pack.

When Collingwood ran at them with their fast overlap running game from defence, Carlton were waiting for them. They had their players positioned well to defend the Pies as they ran to the corridor and forced haphazard kicks into their forward line.

The Blues have gone from being one of the worst tackling teams to one of the best.

Head-knock head-scratcher

It seemed extraordinary to a medically untrained eye that Aliir Aliir could run back out on the ground soon after his thundering head crack with teammate Lachie Jones that saw them both sprawled on the ground.

Jones was subbed out not with concussion but a migraine. Both players looked for all money to have been concussed.

The AFL assures us that not only do the club doctors assess players but that a “spotter” in the AFL’s ARC (the TV hub monitoring every game) analyses potential concussion situations and liaises in real-time with doctors at grounds over player care.

So this is said not to doubt the doctors and the tests that were run, the protocols that were followed. The surprise and the question it raises is: how do you have a hit of that type and get up like Aliir did and play on?

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