Sydney’s win a cultural triumph: Bolton

Sydney’s much-discussed culture has won the day over a series of “garbage” media reports about Lance Franklin, according to former Sydney AFL star Jude Bolton.

Two-time premiership player Bolton says most of the media hype around apparent problems with high-profile former Hawk Franklin settling into his new club have been rubbish.

“This is majority garbage in my view,” Bolton told Channel Seven’s AFL Game Day on Sunday.

The Swans have recovered from an 0-2 start by thrashing the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday in round three.

Franklin stood tall with four goals in a performance welcomed by the Swans, who have battled negative headlines in recent weeks.

Coach John Longmire has denied Franklin and veteran utility Ryan O’Keefe were involved in a fight at training, while another of Franklin’s teammates Dan Hannebery has made the newspapers for crashing Franklin’s car.

“If it’s such a strong culture, you’d think it would hold up under this sort of scrutiny,” 325-game veteran Bolton said.

“Certainly a win just takes that (drama) away.

“It’s something so foreign to the club.

“All this talk about car crashes and different things.

“This is something that the Swans have never dealt with.”

Bolton admitted the 2012 premiers attracted media attention for making a poor start in 2014.

He said scrutiny from the Melbourne media was constant, including the recruiting of star forwards Franklin and Kurt Tippett which sparked protests from Melbourne-based clubs over the Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA) rules which have since been changed.

“I don’t know if there’s an agenda,” Bolton said.

“Certainly they went after the club in terms of the COLA.

“That’s just scrutiny on a powerful side.

“When you go from Kurt Tippett and then into Buddy Franklin, everyone’s got a few gripes against them I guess.”

Longmire said on Saturday that getting a win on the board after two early-season losses was his main concern.

“We just keep worrying about what we can control inside the footy club and that is what we’ll continue to do,” he said.

“He played really well today and so did the other 21.”

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