SYDNEY veteran Kieren Jack has dismissed as laughable Tony Shaw’s suggestion the Swans trade star AFL forward Lance Franklin.
Collingwood legend Shaw questioned whether Sydney can win another premiership in the coming years and felt they could get early draft picks by offloading Franklin, who has three more seasons left on his contact after 2019.
“I think it’s quite laughable, to be honest,” Jack – who will play his 250th AFL game on Saturday against Richmond at Marvel Stadium – said.
“Lance isn’t going anywhere, he’s with us, he’s contracted.
“Sydney love him, we love him here.”
Jack was adamant Sydney could still produce the hard-nosed football that has guided them to the finals for the past nine seasons, the longest current streak.
Sydney are 1-3 in 2019 and have only sporadically displayed the trademarks of their style under coach John Longmire.
“Contested ball and clearance and stoppage work has been part of our DNA, that hasn’t changed, we just need to make sure we deliver on it,” Jack said.
The son of a rugby league legend, Jack could never have imagined playing 250 games when he embarked upon his Australian rules journey.
But Jack, 31, went onto become a co-captain and premiership winner and also gained club best and fairest, All-Australian and International Rules honours.
“It would have been a wild dream back in 2005 to get this far, so it’s something that’s really special and it’s been a great journey,” Jack said.
“You’d be hard pressed to find a coach or recruiter who would have thought I’d play more than five games back then.
“I couldn’t really kick, so when I first got to the club, we stripped everything back, I was an around the corner kicker.
“We just spent hours upon hours hitting targets.”
Jack initially established himself as a tagger and became an integral part of the Swans midfield before moving forward in the past couple of years.
He’s had some injury issues in that period, but said he felt fit and strong.
Jack comes off contract at the end of this season but was non-committal about whether he’d like to keep playing next year.
© AAP 2019
