Biography
Lance Franklin was born on 30 January 1987 in Perth, Western Australia, and grew up in the suburb of Balga. He played his junior football in Perth and developed through the WAFL at Perth Football Club, where his explosive pace, aerial marking ability and left-foot power quickly marked him as one of the most exciting forward talents in the country. Hawthorn Football Club selected him with pick 5 in the 2004 national draft, and he made his AFL debut in Round 1 of 2005 at the Sydney Cricket Ground against the Sydney Swans, a ground he would later call home.
His development through his first two seasons was steady rather than spectacular, but the 2007 season provided the first glimpse of what was coming. Franklin kicked 65 goals in a breakout year and announced himself at the highest level with a stunning match-winning goal from outside 50 in the Elimination Final against Adelaide Football Club, a moment that became one of the enduring images of his career. The following season he exploded. He kicked 113 goals in 2008, claimed his first Coleman Medal, won the Peter Crimmins Medal as Hawthorn’s best and fairest, was named All-Australian, and played in a premiership, all in his fourth AFL season at just 21 years of age.
Through the Hawthorn years from 2007 to 2013, Franklin was arguably the most watchable footballer in the country. Standing 199 centimetres tall and weighing more than 100 kilograms during his peak years, he combined elite marking with devastating pace and a left boot capable of goals few players would even attempt. He led Hawthorn’s goalkicking for six consecutive seasons, kicked two AFL Goals of the Year in 2010 and 2013, won four Coleman Medals, and was a central figure in Hawthorn’s premierships of 2008 and 2013. When he departed at the end of 2013, he had kicked 580 goals in 182 games for Hawthorn, the sixth-highest total ever kicked for a single club at the time.
The move to Sydney on a nine-year, $10 million contract was the most significant player movement of the modern AFL era. The pressure on Franklin to justify the investment was immense and immediate, yet he delivered from day one, kicking 67 goals in his debut season for the Swans and winning his third Coleman Medal. He embraced Sydney as his home, marrying Jesinta Franklin in 2016, and became as much a part of the city’s sporting identity as any footballer before him.
Injuries and mental health challenges disrupted his later Sydney years, particularly across 2019 to 2021, but his resilience and determination to play on were rewarded with one of the most celebrated individual moments in recent AFL history. In Round 2 of the 2022 season at the SCG, in front of a packed crowd, Franklin kicked his 1,000th career goal, becoming just the sixth player in 125 years of VFL/AFL football to reach the milestone. The outpouring of emotion from teammates, opponents and supporters was one of the most memorable scenes the game has produced.
Franklin retired at the end of the 2023 season with 1,066 goals from 354 games, fourth on the all-time VFL/AFL goalkicking list and the only player in league history to kick 500 goals for two different clubs.
