Analysis Where does Buddy Franklin rank amongst the greats?

Buddy's rank of all time players

  • Total voters
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Trav 20 said:
As well as those I'd have him behind Skilton, Bunton, Judd (I'm a huge fan of Judd at his best), Williams, Voss, Hudson, Hart, Dunstall, Stewart, Polly Farmer, Hutchison, Dick Reynolds (not in order). Will Ablett Jnr and Martin edge him out too ?

It's a combination of the best forwards and the best mids the game has seen.

High marking (and pack) is one of the great attributes of Aussie Rules that separates it from any other professional sport in the world. I mark Franklin down slightly due to this weakness in his game.

Has any tall ever moved like Franklin ? No. He's a true great of our game.

But it's all just conjecture. You having him top 6 doesn't offend me, just as my opinion shouldn't trouble you.
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Judd at west coast was dynamite. But Buddy has more talent in his one finger than Judd.
 
Aristotle Pickett said:
He's played another 136 games and kicked 480 more goals at Sydney so overall I put him front of Hudson and Dunstall.
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Not a chance he'd be above those two at Hawthorn.
 

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80s/90s nostalgia is rife in football and players from that era have always been slightly overrated.

Buddy is gonna kick 1000 goals in an era where defense has reigned supreme, scores are at record lows, advanced defensive tactics like flooding and double teaming are common and midfield pressure limits supply.

He's a freak and a top 5 player ever.
 
The 747 said:
I never saw Hudson play so can't comment - but there is no way Buddy is in front of Dunstall. No chance.
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Buddy is way more talented. Dunstall would struggle in this era. Buddy would dominant more in 80's and still dominated in the current era.
 
Rustin Cohle said:
80s/90s nostalgia is rife in football and players from that era have always been slightly overrated.

Buddy is gonna kick 1000 goals in an era where defense has reigned supreme, scores are at record lows, advanced defensive tactics like flooding and double teaming are common and midfield pressure limits supply.

He's a freak and a top 5 player ever.
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If Franklin started playing in the 80's with the shit foot wear, basic bitch sports science, tactics and glorified mud pits..... 80s football drinking /fitness culture alone would've caused him some issues and he'd be a different player. Pointless to compare players of different eras because AFL/VFL was an amateur league till very recently. Franklin played for Hawthorn and they were by far the best offensive team in the competition for a long time too.
 
BM123 said:
If Franklin started playing in the 80's with the sh*t foot wear, basic bitch sports science, tactics and glorified mud pits..... 80s football drinking /fitness culture alone would've caused him some issues and he'd be a different player. Pointless to compare players of different eras because AFL/VFL was an amateur league till very recently. Franklin played for Hawthorn and they were by far the best offensive team in the competition for a long time too.
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We're talking about best players of all time here. Comparing eras is inevitable and is one of the main arguments people put players of the past above those from the past 10-20 years.

Even if we're only talking about the 2000s onwards, Buddy is that much of an outlier compared to all other forwards that he has no equal. He's even more of an outlier compared to great full forwards of the past.
 
Rustin Cohle said:
We're talking about best players of all time here. Comparing eras is inevitable and is one of the main arguments people put players of the past above those from the past 10-20 years.

Even if we're only talking about the 2000s onwards, Buddy is that much of an outlier compared to all other forwards that he has no equal. He's even more of an outlier compared to great full forwards of the past.
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As a pure forward he's definitely one of the best ever no doubt. It's hard to properly rate KPF's even ones like Franklin nowadays because Hawthorn were often seen to be harder to defend against when he wasn't in the side. Obviously that was an issue with the league rewarding teams for dog piling a bunch of c/d graders on top of talented KPF's.
 
As much as I can’t stand him he is a top 3 forward of all time with Ablett Snr and Lockett. After that it really depends how you rate mids vs forwards but I think at a minimum he is top 10. I reckon if he played in the 80s he would’ve got 1200-1300 goals.


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Buddy is the best Full forward of the AFL era IMO and the only other player I’d have him behind in term of sheer dominance/ presence would be Ablett Jr. I’m only 30 so I don’t like to comment on the past too much as I have no ****ing idea really.
 

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Angak said:
Buddy is way more talented. Dunstall would struggle in this era. Buddy would dominant more in 80's and still dominated in the current era.
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What an absolute load of frog shit

Jason Dunstall is a legend of the game. One of the greatest full forwards of all time
He literally changed the game with his chasing, tackling, forward pressure and unselfish team-oriented play.

1,257 goals from 269 games.

4 premierships, 4 best and fairests (2 of those in premiership years)

MVP of the league in 1992. He could've easily won a couple of Brownlow medals. (twice Runner-up, once 3rd and a 4th place)
(He polled more Brownlow votes than Tony Lockett, Wayne Carey and Gary Ablett)

He would've passed Coventry's record before Lockett did and owned the all-time "most goals" record were it not for the 2 ACL ruptures he suffered late in his career.


100 goals in a season (1897-2022)

6 times: Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett
5 times: Peter Hudson
4 times: Gordon Coventry
3 times: John Coleman, Bob Pratt, Peter McKenna, Gary Ablett
2 times: Ron Todd, Doug Wade, Bernie Quinlan, Matthew Lloyd
1 time : Lance Franklin, Fraser Gehrig,Tony Modra, Peter Sumich, Warwick Capper, Brian Taylor, Simon Beasley, Malcolm Blight, Michael Roach, Kelvin Templeton, Larry Donohue, Geoff Blethyn, Alex Jesaulenko, George Moloney, Bill Mohr, Jack Titus
 
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Too 10-20 in the last 35 years. Phil Davis is 12-2 against him apparently. Was never going to kick 5 in the first round. How often has he kicked 5 in the last 3-4 years? And how often against top 8 teams?
Backing the 1000 will come against the cats!
 
Angak said:
Buddy is way more talented. Dunstall would struggle in this era. Buddy would dominant more in 80's and still dominated in the current era.
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This era Dunstall is not kicking half the goals he did in the 80's and 90's. Even assuming modern training to slim him down defensive structures are designed to stop key forwards kicking huge bags and Dunstall is only 191cm (188cm according to footywire), which is pretty small for a Key Forward these days.
 
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