Is this what ageing feels like?
Buddy Franklin, my favourite non-Richmond Tiger ever, announced his immediate retirement on a random Monday afternoon and there went another forever athlete.
Sydney Swans champion and icon of the game Lance Franklin has called time on his remarkable career, announcing his retirement, effective immediately.#ThanksBuddy
— Sydney Swans (@sydneyswans) July 31, 2023
Adjusting for the era in which he played, Buddy is the greatest goal scorer in league history. But that specific stat, or even just the simple fact that he kicked over 1,000 goals in his career somehow does him a disservice..
Thanks for the memories
🤎💛 pic.twitter.com/NvW0yA1mnw— Hawthorn FC (@HawthornFC) July 31, 2023
Simply counting the goals that he kicked doesn’t even begin to account for how it felt when he jumped over a contest in the middle of the MCG to kick a legitimate 80 metre goal.
One goal feels like too few for the lightning bolt that struck the footy public when he turned a gallant Chris Tarrant to the wrong side for a left footer and kicked a 25-metre dribbler to put the Hawks in front with 4 minutes left in the 2011 Preliminary Final.
Anthony Hudson’s call of “GIVE HIM A LONGER CONTRACT” in the game where Buddy officially announced himself as a Sydney Swan by dismembering a hapless Port defence should have added another 10 goals onto his tally.
Huddo’s call of “THIRTEEN” should have added another 30.
Put simply, the numbers just won’t do.
Huddo + Buddy – the perfect soundtrack.
What made Buddy great went beyond the football, it was the attitude. Buddy is maybe the most secure in his abilities footballer I’ve ever seen live. He actually just knew he was better than you.
He never once in his career looked in board when he took a mark where the 50 arc and the boundary paint met. He turned his back and told everyone not to bother leading.
Buddy was so good that he got the treatment that only the truly special ones get. When he wasn’t playing that well he wasn’t out of form. He was “due”.
History in 68 frames 📸 #Buddy1000 pic.twitter.com/9zdEluXWSb
— Michael Willson (@MichaelCWillson) March 27, 2022
It was a bit like Steven Spielberg’s semi-biopic The Fablemans. There was never any self-questioning, it was just “How awesome am I going to be at this?”. For Buddy, the answer was pretty fucking awesome.
That pure ego is what made Buddy so special. It never appeared to occur to him that he could doubt himself. At least not while he was on the field. And now we’ll never get to see him again.
But Buddy is the latest in a long string of what I am dubbing “forever athletes” that are finally leaving their chosen games, after extraordinarily long careers.
The NFL has basically lost a class of forever quarterbacks in Tom Brady, the Manning brothers, Ben Roethlisberger, Phillip Rivers, Drew Brees and the list goes on. Really only Aaron Rodgers is left.
Time out—are Tom Brady and Irina Shayk dating?👀 pic.twitter.com/kUcnp3znj1
— E! News (@enews) July 24, 2023
Tom Brady, appears to be doing alright post his NFL career.
In tennis, Djokovic and Nadal are still going but Federer is gone, Murray is done as a genuine competitor and the Williams sisters have retired.
Djokovic and Nadal: still hanging around.
In the round ball game Messi and Ronaldo have both now left the top flight of their sport and are now cashing cheques that carry varying degrees of moral baggage.
Even in AFL footy, a sport that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to real longevity, some of the forever superstars are finally done, namely Buddy and Garry Ablett Jr.
Junior and Buddy – Two GOATS in 1 photo, featuring a disappointing Gold Coast Suns clash jumper.
There are still a few of these forever athletes that are kicking at an extraordinary high level given their age and the amount of tread on their tyres – LeBron James and Scott Pendlebury are two that spring to mind – but it’s pretty clear we’re coming to the end of a truly special class of athletes.
I appreciate that the last 5 paragraphs of this piece that is ostensibly about Buddy Franklin have devolved into GuyWhoLikesSport naming guys who played sport, but just look at the names listed.
Over my lifetime, I have distinct, specific memories of every single one of the immortal athletes that I just listed.
That is truly extraordinary.
Maybe I only think of those athletes as immortal because they played in my youth and in my formative years. Maybe older people will say that they felt the same in the 90s or the 80s or the 70s.
Maybe they’ll tell me that, in the same way that the next generation has been the one to mark the end of civilisation for as long as Jesus has worn short pants, every generation has considered their athletes to the best athletes.
Maybe they’ll tell me all of those things.
But I doubt it.
Of the athletes listed, I count 11 players who can mount genuine arguments for being the greatest players their specific sport has ever seen.
At least 3 – Tom Brady, Serena Williams, and any of Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic – are almost universally agreed to be the greatest players ever at their respective sports.
I didn’t even name Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods – didn’t get a shout out from GuyWhoLikesSport
The real question is whether it’s repeatable?
Maybe it is.
People are getting bigger, faster and stronger. Sports science is only getting better. Athletes understand their bodies, recovery, and diet more fully every single day.
A budding athlete today can know everything that he or she will ever need to know about how to maximise their athleticism as soon as they learn how to read and if they’re good enough, they’ll be able to access the best in medicine and science.
Beyond that, sport is just getting more accessible. We can watch everything. Stats are widely available in every sport except AFL football.
We’re getting better at watching and quantifying greatness. The confluence of access and excellence can’t be overstated.
But for today, who cares if it’s repeatable?
We’re the first generation who got to benefit from that confluence. We got to drink that heady brew first.
It has been truly special to watch as many immortals as we have over such a confined space of time.
For my money, Buddy Franklin was a big part of that as any of the other forever athletes I named.
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