Buddy aims for record

LANCE Franklin will buck a recent trend if he can kick a big bag of goals in Saturday’s AFL Grand Final against the Western Bulldogs.

The only players to have kicked five goals in a Grand Final in the past decade were Buddy’s former Hawthorn teammate Jarryd Roughead in 2014 and Geelong’s Cam Mooney in 2007.

You have to go back to 1997 to find a player who has kicked more than five in a season decider.

Darren Jarman kicked six in Adelaide’s win over St Kilda, while a year earlier the game’s most prolific goalkicker, Tony Lockett, booted six in a losing cause for Sydney against North Melbourne.

“It’s rare that you get a big key forward kick five or six goals (in a Grand Final),” former key forward Barry Hall, who kicked five goals in his three Grand Final appearances, said.

“You don’t get the traditional forwards kicking big bags of goals and winning the game for you. It’s just a different game of footy,” Hall said. Franklin has kicked 10 goals in his four Grand Final appearances, a lower strike rate than his career average of over three a game.

Buddy’s best goal efforts in season deciders were both in a losing team. He kicked four for the Swans against the Hawks in 2014 and his next highest tally of three was for Hawthorn against Sydney two years earlier. Conversely, he kicked just one and two in victories over Fremantle and Geelong in 2013 and 2008 respectively.

Franklin’s 80-goal campaign has pushed him up 10 places in the highest goalkicking list headed by Lockett’s 1360 majors.

He’s moved up to 12th spot with 786, having this year overtaken Hall, Wayne Carey, Peter Hudson and Stephen Kernahan.

If he can fulfil the six seasons remaining on his Sydney contract, Franklin could well become just the sixth man to kick 1000 goals, needing an average of around 43 a year to reach four figures.