Both Karl Langdon and Paul Hasleby believe more of an example should be made of Lance Franklin following his latest on-field indiscretion.
The Sydney superstar lashed out at Luke Ryan in the second quarter of his side’s win over Fremantle on Sunday, elbowing the defender in the head as he was tackled over the boundary line.
As a result, Franklin has been charged with striking and has been offered a one-match suspension.
The incident followed a late hit on Nathan Wilson in the same game and comes after the 34-year-old was fined for a high hit on Port Adelaide’s Jarrod Lienert and was also cited, but avoided a sanction, for a hit on Carlton’s Nic Newman.
West Coast premiership player Langdon believes Franklin was lucky to cop just one week for what he describes as a “gutless” act.
“Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin is Buddy lucky, I reckon,” Langdon said on Sportsday WA.
“Because he’s only copped a one-week offer for striking Luke Ryan, a deliberate back elbow to the head. Gutless as far as I’m concerned.
“When they come out with the penalty and say it was his first offence. Please, mate. He’s had plenty of offences over time and there’s been a few little ones where he’s copped fines earlier in the year.”
Fremantle champion Hasleby was also critical of Franklin’s actions and believes the AFL must take a stronger stance in order to stamp out such behaviour.
“He’s been skating on thin ice for a long time in relation to suspensions,” he said.
“We do often look at some of the big hits that are made by players where they have a split second to make a decision. They might cop that player high and they normally cop one to two weeks for those.
“These ones here are simple for me. The message is not getting sent hard enough from the AFL because this was deliberate, it was thought about, he actually changed the ball from one hand to the other to free up that elbow to be able to do that to Luke Ryan.
“If Luke Ryan gets a serious injury from that, we know he (Franklin) gets two or three (weeks).
“But it’s simple - stamp this crap out of the game. Give two to three weeks and then he won’t do it next time because he’s coach will go hard at him, his teammates will go hard, and it will send a message to everybody else in the competition that we will not tolerate those acts.”
At this point in time, Franklin will miss Saturday night’s clash with Essendon at the Gabba as the sixth-placed Swans strive to push towards a top-four finish.
However, Sydney is set to challenge to ban for Buddy, according to SEN's Sam Edmund.
Sydney will challenge the one match ban for Lance Franklin. More to come at https://t.co/z8yG56ep3u
— Sam Edmund (@Sammy__Edmund) July 27, 2021