Bosk
Brownlow Medallist
OK, here are my thoughts.
Case 1 - Buddy wants to stay and its a ploy to get more money.
My first reaction upon hearing the news was "Pickering must think he can squeeze more out of the Hawks if he puts contract talks off until the end of the season".
There's a lot of truth in that way of looking at it I think. By the end of the year the club will be desperate to retain Franklin at any price, and free agency offers from other clubs will come in that the club may be forced to match. That doesn't necessarily mean that Franklin INTENDS to accept any of those offers mind you, but the club won't be in a position to call his bluff, they'll have to match any free agency offer under the assumption that he will. (unless its something truly ridiculous like 2m a year from one of the expansion clubs, and then the ball will be in Buddy's court)
Case 2 - Buddy doesn't mind which club he plays for, so long as he gets top dollar.
Now I'm not saying this is the case, everything Franklin's said up to this point suggests he wants to say at Hawthorn. Franklin doesn't strike me as the mercenary type either for that matter, though neither did Ablett. Money does strange things to people.
If Pickering's convinced him that this current contract negotiation will probably be the most important of his whole career (something I would agree with) then I guess from that point of view it does make sense for Franklin to hold off until the end of the year so he can see how large the free agency offers are, and which clubs they come from.
Looking at it from Pickering's perspective; Here's the most sought-after player in the competition in the absolute prime of his career, it is utterly nonsensical that he re-signs with his current club before at least fielding offers from others or "testing the waters" so to speak. Who knows? Maybe one of the expansion clubs will throw a ludicrous amount of coin his way and naturally Pickering gets paid a percentage commission of whatever Franklin earns.... no surprises for guessing what he'd be whispering in Lance's ear.
Case 3 - Buddy wants to leave.
Well this is the nightmare scenario and before today's news I would've rated it 50-1 at least. It's very hard to know exactly what goes on behind the scenes at the club when we're fed so little real information. Does Franklin want to leave for some reason? I have no idea, obviously I very strongly hope that he doesn't, but for argument's sake I'll theorize why it might hypothetically be possible.
An obvious -possible- reason might be that Franklin isn't a big fan of Clarkson. I'm not either for that matter, and I'm not terribly convinced that Clarko has always used Franklin in the best possible manner since 2008.
Second, take a look at the delivery Franklin received from our midfielders in last year's GF. It was piss poor all day. With Mitchell, Hodge & Sewell all nearing the end Buddy may feel that he'd get significantly better opportunities to kick bags elsewhere... and to be quite honest I'd agree with him. God only knows how easily he'd crack the ton every year with Collingwood's midfield giving him silver service, hypothetically of course.
Finally, he may feel that last year was our best chance of winning another flag and that he'd have better odds of winning a second premiership medal at a new club. Or he may simply feel its time for a change of scenery. Or he might have decided he's always wanted to live in Sydney. Who really knows? I certainly don't, all this is speculation of course.
Oh and finally I'd like to throw in a conspiracy theory - Vlad has secretly promised Buddy that if he signs with GWS he'll be paid umpteen million a year by the AFL for 'marketing purposes', after all who could promote the game in the market the AFL is *desperate* to grow the game in better than Buddy?
Case 1 - Buddy wants to stay and its a ploy to get more money.
My first reaction upon hearing the news was "Pickering must think he can squeeze more out of the Hawks if he puts contract talks off until the end of the season".
There's a lot of truth in that way of looking at it I think. By the end of the year the club will be desperate to retain Franklin at any price, and free agency offers from other clubs will come in that the club may be forced to match. That doesn't necessarily mean that Franklin INTENDS to accept any of those offers mind you, but the club won't be in a position to call his bluff, they'll have to match any free agency offer under the assumption that he will. (unless its something truly ridiculous like 2m a year from one of the expansion clubs, and then the ball will be in Buddy's court)
Case 2 - Buddy doesn't mind which club he plays for, so long as he gets top dollar.
Now I'm not saying this is the case, everything Franklin's said up to this point suggests he wants to say at Hawthorn. Franklin doesn't strike me as the mercenary type either for that matter, though neither did Ablett. Money does strange things to people.
If Pickering's convinced him that this current contract negotiation will probably be the most important of his whole career (something I would agree with) then I guess from that point of view it does make sense for Franklin to hold off until the end of the year so he can see how large the free agency offers are, and which clubs they come from.
Looking at it from Pickering's perspective; Here's the most sought-after player in the competition in the absolute prime of his career, it is utterly nonsensical that he re-signs with his current club before at least fielding offers from others or "testing the waters" so to speak. Who knows? Maybe one of the expansion clubs will throw a ludicrous amount of coin his way and naturally Pickering gets paid a percentage commission of whatever Franklin earns.... no surprises for guessing what he'd be whispering in Lance's ear.
Case 3 - Buddy wants to leave.
Well this is the nightmare scenario and before today's news I would've rated it 50-1 at least. It's very hard to know exactly what goes on behind the scenes at the club when we're fed so little real information. Does Franklin want to leave for some reason? I have no idea, obviously I very strongly hope that he doesn't, but for argument's sake I'll theorize why it might hypothetically be possible.
An obvious -possible- reason might be that Franklin isn't a big fan of Clarkson. I'm not either for that matter, and I'm not terribly convinced that Clarko has always used Franklin in the best possible manner since 2008.
Second, take a look at the delivery Franklin received from our midfielders in last year's GF. It was piss poor all day. With Mitchell, Hodge & Sewell all nearing the end Buddy may feel that he'd get significantly better opportunities to kick bags elsewhere... and to be quite honest I'd agree with him. God only knows how easily he'd crack the ton every year with Collingwood's midfield giving him silver service, hypothetically of course.
Finally, he may feel that last year was our best chance of winning another flag and that he'd have better odds of winning a second premiership medal at a new club. Or he may simply feel its time for a change of scenery. Or he might have decided he's always wanted to live in Sydney. Who really knows? I certainly don't, all this is speculation of course.
Oh and finally I'd like to throw in a conspiracy theory - Vlad has secretly promised Buddy that if he signs with GWS he'll be paid umpteen million a year by the AFL for 'marketing purposes', after all who could promote the game in the market the AFL is *desperate* to grow the game in better than Buddy?
