Lance Franklin

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An interesting thread to read back over...
 

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Dewnior said:
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Mercy Seat said:
Doubt it was Hodgey he was pretty high profile in 05 and All Australian.

Maybe Rough...
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Yeah, not Hodgey. Whilst Hodgey's AA came in the season that followed the game being discussed in the OP, he was pick 1 in the Superdraft, known to everyone (after 3 years discussing him v Ball v Judd) and not really very skinny, especially by '05.

The first page (i.e. at the time) actually identifies who I think it most likely is - Josh Thurgood.

Very, very skinny and a terrible haircut (long, bright red dreads). People will assume not with the thinking that he was never good but I vividly recall being quite impressed with his skills and ball handling. His issue was he had a super light frame and so he was heavily targeted with physical attention and unfortunately it worked very well as his body: (a) struggled to withstand the rigors of AFL, especially with the extra physical treatment he was copping and (b) had trouble putting on weight quick enough.

It's "only" been 20 years and the game was pretty clean by '05 but I still think Thurgood may have fared pretty well nowdays with much less "targetted attention" part of the game and plenty of skinny types thriving in today's context.

Warning...not the most handsome fella...

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Some "fun facts" on Thurgood: Debuted in '05 (timeline matches up well), played 9 games that year and 13 in his career. Never experienced a win :(. Was the last player to wear #33 prior to Cyril. Had great skills and was kamikaze courageous given his size. Most famous for the incident in his third game where Matty Lloyd lined him up in first contest of the game and used his reinforced armguard to smash Thurgood's cheekbone into multiple pieces. Such was Thurgood's courage, he only missed one game and had 4 shots on goal in his return to the side.
 
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Guardian Hawk said:
Yeah, not Hodgey. Whilst Hodgey's AA came in the season that followed the game being discussed in the OP, he was pick 1 in the Superdraft, known to everyone (after 3 years discussing him v Ball v Judd) and not really very skinny, especially by '05.

The first page (i.e. at the time) actually identifies who I think it most likely is - Josh Thurgood.

Very, very skinny and a terrible haircut (long, bright red dreads). People will assume not with the thinking that he was never good but I vividly recall being quite impressed with his skills and ball handling. His issue was he had a super light frame and so he was heavily targeted with physical attention and unfortunately it worked very well as his body: (a) struggled to withstand the rigors of AFL, especially with the extra physical treatment he was copping and (b) had trouble putting on weight quick enough.

It's "only" been 20 years and the game was pretty clean by '05 but I still think Thurgood may have fared pretty well nowdays with much less "targetted attention" part of the game and plenty of skinny types thriving in today's context.

Warning...not the most handsome fella...

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Don't think i've ever seen a player go in as hard as Thurgood. Loved him! But yeah prob didn't have the build to sustain it. Didn't help he got smashed in the face by that prick Lloyd with his arm guard, which pretty much ended his career.
 
Guardian Hawk said:
Yeah, not Hodgey. Whilst Hodgey's AA came in the season that followed the game being discussed in the OP, he was pick 1 in the Superdraft, known to everyone (after 3 years discussing him v Ball v Judd) and not really very skinny, especially by '05.

The first page (i.e. at the time) actually identifies who I think it most likely is - Josh Thurgood.

Very, very skinny and a terrible haircut (long, bright red dreads). People will assume not with the thinking that he was never good but I vividly recall being quite impressed with his skills and ball handling. His issue was he had a super light frame and so he was heavily targeted with physical attention and unfortunately it worked very well as his body: (a) struggled to withstand the rigors of AFL, especially with the extra physical treatment he was copping and (b) had trouble putting on weight quick enough.

It's "only" been 20 years and the game was pretty clean by '05 but I still think Thurgood may have fared pretty well nowdays with much less "targetted attention" part of the game and plenty of skinny types thriving in today's context.

Warning...not the most handsome fella...

View attachment 2261788
Click to expand...

I recall a game we played against Port and Josh was made to look stupid by a man who would go on to become a 2008 premiership hero for us.

The ball was in the forward pocket and Josh was sold the sweetest candy that resulted in a goal of the year contender being kicked from the boundary line.

I felt sorry for Josh that day.
 
Hearing him talk about the Hawks is pretty special these days.
Hearing him talk about things outside of footy I think is also incredible.
I'd argue that this is one of his most genuine media performances which I think is awesome.

Loved hearing him talk about JUH and being able to talk about both Sydney and Hawthorn.
 
hardway said:
Hated the way he left but the guy become a superstar. We are lucky to have seen this boy and man play in our colours.
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The excitement he generated in those 2007-2008 seasons had to be experienced to be believed. It was amazing.
 
I still remember Mick Malthouse having Buddy in his pre season All Australian team very early days (maybe after Buds second or third season?) and I thought steady on Mick he's just a kid.

Turns out he was right of course!
 

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I think summing up Buddy as the Michael Jordan of AFL footy is about right. He did some magical things on the footy field. If you YouTube the clip with his 1000 goals, you can relive some of that magic. The first 580 were in hawthorn colours. Some of them still bring tears to my eyes today, watching them again.
 
hardway said:
I made a call on Bigfooty about Sicily in his first season after I watched him in a reserves game against Coburg. I said something along the lines that he was going to be the biggest draft steal.
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I saw one of his first games for Box Hill too. I said to a mate of mine that he had 5 kicks, 3 marks and 7 fights.
 
Mitch75 said:
I think summing up Buddy as the Michael Jordan of AFL footy is about right. He did some magical things on the footy field. If you YouTube the clip with his 1000 goals, you can relive some of that magic. The first 580 were in hawthorn colours. Some of them still bring tears to my eyes today, watching them again.
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He was my favourite ever player to watch during the time he wore the colours. His 2008 season was the best individual season of highlights i've ever seen.
 
moginie said:
The excitement he generated in those 2007-2008 seasons had to be experienced to be believed. It was amazing.
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I had so many mates (neutrals) who would go to the footy just to watch Buddy play in 08.

Buddymania was real.
 
Mitch75 said:
I think summing up Buddy as the Michael Jordan of AFL footy is about right. He did some magical things on the footy field. If you YouTube the clip with his 1000 goals, you can relive some of that magic. The first 580 were in hawthorn colours. Some of them still bring tears to my eyes today, watching them again.
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And when he was doing this stuff in the same game that Cyril was doing his thing…wow
 

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