![]() ![]() I took him off the ground in a game down at Geelong against Vic Metro from memory. “The infamous story amongst my coaching buddies was that I found it hard to get him to play defensively at times. ![]() “He was so used to being a freewheeler and he was good at it,” McNeill said. ![]() It came to a head in a game against one of the Victorian teams at Geelong. But he admitted to having teething problems with the mercurial teenager when he coached him in his draft year in the carnival in Victoria. He was told he wasn’t allowed to.Īsked if he had ever coached a better teenage athlete than Franklin, McNeill said he had probably never seen one. The state under 18s coach at the time was former Fremantle football manager Gerard McNeill, who had seen Franklin playing Colts at Perth as a 16 year-old and had wanted to play him in the national 18s championships that year. Once he got out on the field he was full of confidence. “Obviously at this point there were recruiters jumping around us all over the shop. Dangerous.Ī fresh-faced Lance Franklin after being drafted by Hawthorn. The legs would go, his motor would go and it was somehow co-ordinated to kick a 60 metre drop punt. There was something that was unique to him. “It was amazing to watch the raw talent, the skill with that left foot … and the speed … and the package. “I thought, ‘Nah nah, who did that? Where did that come from?’ He picked up the ball on the wing, one bounce … goal.” “I went out to training having heard about this kid Buddy Franklin,” he recalled. He remembers having a similar first reaction. Buddy Franklin”, came the reply.įormer East Perth forward Brent Levitzke – a good WAFL player in his own right and a left footer like Franklin but, by his own admission, bearing no other athletic resemblance – was coaching Wesley that year. The censored version: “Who the hell was that?” I turned to the bloke standing next me who was wearing Wesley colours. He then kicked it, still moving at pace, as an AFL player would have kicked it. He took a ball out of the air at a boundary throw about 30 metres down from me and wheeled away from tacklers at a speed you just didn’t see from kids of that size, and a balance you rarely saw from kids of any size, let alone one growing into a seemingly gangly body. This, combined with ball skills which were already advanced beyond the other kids out there, gave the impression that he was on the same field but playing a different sport to all teammates and competitors. A young Lance Franklin shows his wares at the AFL Draft combine in Canberra. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |