“He had an ability to get the big deals done”: The surprise name who initiated Franklin’s nine-year deal
Bravo Management's Liam Pickering has revealed it was Sydney and former CEO Andrew Ireland who initiated the length of Lance Franklin’s nine-year deal almost a decade ago.
Franklin joined the Swans from Hawthorn in late 2013 on a $10 million deal in a bombshell move that shocked the football world, and many doubted the then 26-year-old would see out his contract in the Harbour City.
After signing a one-year contract extension earlier this week, the eight-time All-Australian said he’s “definitely proved (the doubters) wrong”.
Speaking on SEN’s Dwayne’s World, Pickering – who was Franklin’s manager until 2014 - credited the former Hawk’s “sensational achievement” ahead of his sixth Grand Final.
“It’s something I’ve spoken about quite a lot over the last nine years,” he said.
“Whether he’d get through and whether he’d play the nine years and the way it all came about (was all questioned at the time). He was dead keen to get there, the Swans were dead keen to make it happen and they did it.
“It was hard work from them, the AFL certainly didn’t make it easy for them in the end but it was worthwhile and it’s played the full length which is sensational.”
GWS was tipped as the likely destination for Franklin when departing Hawthorn, with the Swans’ interest in Franklin kept a tightly-guarded secret until late in the play.
But Pickering added the detail that it was Sydney – particularly former CEO Andrew Ireland – that initiated the length of the contract.
Pickering said neither he nor Franklin expected the length of the contract.
“I was always confident because Andrew Ireland, who was the CEO at the time – he’s a sensational operator, he really is – and he was the one who did the Alastair Lynch’s 10-year-deal, the longest deal ever done in footy,” he offered.
“He had an ability to get the big deals done, I didn’t know it was going to be that long, I just gave him a dollar amount that would get it done.
“He said, ‘give me a bit of time and I'll come back to you’. A few months later he said, ‘I’ve got you that money… it’s a long deal’, and I said, ‘how long’, and he said, ‘nine years’ and I went ‘wow, how old would he be?’.
“Similar to what Buddy said to me when I told him it was nine years, but he’s got through and what a sensational player he’s been and what a champion of the game he’s been.”
Franklin put contract talks on hold earlier this year amid reports he would play for Brisbane next year, but turned his back on a third club to provide the Swans with a huge boost in Grand Final week.