The text messages between goal-kicking champion Lance Franklin's manager, Liam Pickering, and Sydney coach John Longmire began on May 9, 2012, 18 months before one of the biggest moves in the AFL.
The weekend before, Hawthorn beat St Kilda by 35 points, and were looking to avenge their close preliminary final loss to Collingwood from 2011. Franklin had kicked 5.6. The Hawks squared their win-loss ledger at 3-3 after Round 6.
The Swans had just suffered their first defeat for the year, going down to Adelaide by five points. They were third after Round 6.
"Let's backtrack for a moment to 2012. I felt confident then that we were building to something special, even if there were a few gaps in our recruiting matrix. Our most glaring ‘list need' was a ready-made key position forward. We had our eye on Adelaide's Kurt Tippett, but a text message I received on 9 May 2012 – just four days after we lost to the Crows by five points at the SCG – raised the stakes considerably," Longmire wrote in his soon-to-be released autobiography, which will be published by Penguin on August 3.
Pickering, at 6:23pm, sent: "Hawks trying to extend Buddy now mate – he is not keen at the moment. Interested in Swans if u can speak to Andrew (Ireland) and come up with the right offer." Longmire responded: "Will speak to Andrew. Thanks."
Longmire and Pickering formed a relationship during their time spent together at North Melbourne from 1989 to 1992. The latter, after his playing career, turned into one of the biggest AFL agents.
Franklin was contracted until the end of 2013 and had secured a flag in 2008 with the Hawks, and the club was on the march to a modern-day dynasty.
"Then, in the middle of a nine-game winning streak that franked our 2012 credentials, Pickers came back to me with another text," Longmire wrote.
"It was 19 July. This time, his message was more explicit: ‘Just spoke to Buddy then. You were right, I said he was 80/20 going to the Swans … You said bulls***! You were right … he just told me to “tell your mate Horse, I'm 95% going to the Swans” … fair dinkum.'"
Franklin wanted out of the Melbourne "goldfish bowl" and wanted to move closer to his partner, Jesinta, who lived in Sydney. But the Swans' interest in Crows' key forward, Kurt Tippett, caused 'Buddy' concern.
"Pickers shot me another text message (days after the 2012 grand final): ‘I've just got a message from Bud; he has asked, why are you going after Tippett?'" Longmire revealed.
"I wrote back: ‘Why is that?'
"He came straight back with: ‘He wants to come to Sydney.' I asked him if he was serious. He said that he was. I almost fell off the couch."
Making things harder was the existing relationship Longmire had with Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson. The pair, along with Pickering, played together at North Melbourne. So a meeting between Franklin and Sydney could not be made public.
The irony is that Franklin had been keen on before the two clubs met in the 2012 grand final, which was decided by 10 points. Sydney claimed the victory on the last Saturday of September.
But 'Buddy' and the Hawks would get their revenge 12 months later against Fremantle.
Franklin underwent a medical in Sydney during the 2013 bye rounds, and later that year, signed a nine-year, $10 million deal with the Swans, after the Hawks opted not to match the bid.
And as they say, the rest is history.
John Longmire: My Autobiography will be published by Penguin on August 3. It is available now for pre-order across print, ebook and audiobook through all good book retailers.
