Lance Franklin and Alex Rance’s running battle at the MCG will serve as a stark reminder of how the AFL has evolved.
The highlight of round 13 will unfold at traditionalists’ favourite timeslot and venue. However, Franklin and Rance won’t be allowed to wind the clock back to the days of the incredible one-on-one rivalry that Wayne Carey and Glen Jakovich shared throughout the 1990s.
The league’s premier goalkicker will not be caged in the forward line. Franklin will roam, his pressure acts will boost Sydney’s hopes of victory as much as his goals.
The competition’s best defender will be one of many Richmond players asked to curb Franklin’s influence. Rance will also seek to hurt the Swans with rebounding run and intercept marks.
Yet it’s hard to imagine a more anticipated duel this season.
Franklin and Rance are the best at their respective crafts and among the AFL’s most athletic, authoritative and exciting players. It’s just their coaches value different things to what Denis Pagan and Mick Malthouse did 20 years ago; defence and attack have become increasingly blurred in the modern era.
“It’s certainly evolved a lot,” Alastair Lynch reflected, having spent time at both fullback and full-forward in a 306-game career that ran from 1988 until 2004.
“I started my career playing on some of the greats like Jason Dunstall and Tony Lockett. You were isolated in the goal square. It was nerve-racking, you’d wait for the ball to come in and knew it’d be a one-on-one contest every time.
“I was very happy if I could punch it over the line.
“By the end of my career, you’d often be in two-on-one situations as a forward and just trying to get the ball to ground.
“Defenders became an integral part of offence. It wasn’t about shutting your opponent down. Stephen Silvagni, Dustin Fletcher and Matty Scarlett were fantastic players who were athletic, could read the play and be really attacking.”
Franklin booted seven goals during his most recent clash with Richmond, who were devoid of momentum and morale in the final round of the 2016 regular season.
But such bags are now oddities.
Spearheads still exist but genuine full-forwards became endangered soon after Lynch’s retirement in 2004.
“Everyone started pressing up the ground. I remember scratching my head a few times, I’d be standing in the centre circle but playing full-forward,” Lynch said.
Frankin and Rance’s match-up will be hard to map. It will stop at various points, depending on rotations and where each man is running. It may not even transpire, although Swans coach John Longmire senses that is unlikely.
“Footy these days is about players playing in different positions all the time, handovers and things like that but there’s no doubt they will end up on each other at different times,” Longmire said this week.
“How long for is anyone’s guess.”
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has already made it clear that Dylan Grimes and David Astbury will also share the burden of trying to contain Franklin.
Nonetheless, Lynch expects the prospect of two of the league’s premier players to bring people through the gates, just as it did for Carey’s epic bouts with Jakovich.
“You still go to the footy to watch great players,” Lynch said.
“Rance has great closing speed, can spoil and I can only remember a few times in the last couple of years when he’s been outmarked in a one-on-one.
“Buddy isn’t a traditional key forward but he’s one of the most unique forwards we’ve ever seen, certainly in my time.
“It’ll be fascinating. Let’s hope they’re on each other for the majority of the game.”
