Dermott Brereton has begun to question whether Sydney’s mammoth $10 million move to bring star forward Lance Franklin to the club has been a failure after yet another season without a premiership.
The now 30-year-old moved to Sydney after winning his second premiership with Hawthorn in 2013, but has since failed to replicate the same success with his second side – his only participation in a Grand Final in the red and white coming last year in their defeat to the Western Bulldogs.
Despite Brereton calling his former side the best team in the competition after recovering from a 0-6 start to win a final – the first team in VFL/AFL history to do so – Brereton says another year without success can only be branded as a failure.
With Franklin locked into the club until the end of 2022 and still being paid well over a million dollars a season, Brereton wonders whether Sydney’s latest failure could throw scrutiny on the club’s decision to have so much of their salary cap invested in one player for so long.
“Given what they have paid for the players they have attracted there… they got close, but you would probably say (2017 is) a failure,” the five-time premiership star told SEN’s The Run Home.
“I mean Lance’s contract of $10 million, I would think they would have expected to win a premiership or two in that era. He’s been fantastic and they haven’t landed one with him yet. It’s starting to mount up a little bit on them.”
Franklin has won two Coleman Medals and three All-Australians since joining the Swans.
With fellow veteran tall Kurt Tippett also on big money despite struggling to secure a regular spot in the senior Sydney side this year, their combined salary cap impact is believed to have contributed to the loss of players such Tom Mitchell and Toby Nankervis to rival clubs on much more lucrative deals.