EARLY September, 2015.
 
These were tumultuous days for the Sydney Swans and the game's highest profiled player, Lance Franklin.
 
A seizure in a Bondi coffee shop early on a Friday morning. An ambulance to hospital. A game of football the next night. Then, 48 hours later, a shock public announcement that Franklin would be unavailable for a final. A week later, confirmation that Franklin was ruled out for the year with a serious mental health condition.
 
Even during this stressful period, there were senior people associated with the Swans whose confidence did not waver when it came to dealing with a football return for Franklin.

Buddy eye's a ton, and not just for him
 
But other senior Swans did fear that he would not come back to the game.
 
Franklin had nearly three months away from the club and returned to training early December.
 
Watching Franklin use the opening nine rounds of the 2016 season to compile a beautiful set of football numbers, particularly the 4-4-4-4-2-5-6-5-3 goalkicking sequence, it is easy to forget the trauma of nine months ago.
 
Franklin has re-entered the game's elite group. His ability to change the flow of a match has returned, evidenced in his 70-metre goal against Hawthorn last Friday, as well as the exquisitely executed, mind-reading pass to teammate Gary Rohan at a key moment.

The swagger is back. 

Franklin's preparedness to converse about his troubles with those he trusts has been identified as the key to his comeback, and it has been a meticulously coordinated process to get him to this point.
 
The first part of the plan, of which he has helped steer, was ultimately the most important. It was the decision to publicly reveal the mental health condition.
 
Having lived with his issues for a long time, Franklin gave permission for the club to conditionally speak about the generics of his situation; he wanted people to know and hopefully understand.

Many people have assisted Franklin in the ensuing nine months. Coach John Longmire’s trusting and caring ways have emerged as arguably the most significant factor in the 29-year-old’s ability to instantly return to his best football.

The two chat regularly, and openly. What they talk about stays between the two of them.
 
While Franklin is certainly the highest-profiled AFL player known to be suffering mental health issues, he is merely one of many dozens across the competition who are dealing with it.
 
Senior officials at all clubs across the AFL deal with this situation on a daily basis. One club has more than 10 players on its list who are dealing with mental health issues.
 
The condition does not discriminate, with players at successful clubs suffering it at the same rates as those who are among the lower clubs.

Each club and each player deals with it differently, but the club bosses are well aware that the support and high-level resources available in AFL land is balanced by the fact that everything an AFL player does is scrutinised like few other pursuits in this country.
 
Specific details around the Franklin events of early September last year 2015 do not matter.
 
The details don't matter because in the scheme of a life nearly half way through its 30th year, the hours, days, weeks and months leading to the public announcement that he would be taking a break from football are no more significant to the man himself and those in whom he trusts than the many years, possibly a half-life amount of years, which preceded that period.
 
What matters most now is the fact he had come to the decision to share his deepest problems with those closest to him.
 
Franklin the person became the only focus for the Swans.
 
This, despite Franklin the footballer having required of them the enormous commitment of $10 million and nine years on a playing list. And then, not even two years into the deal, he became unavailable for selection days before a finals campaign.
 
The Swans lost a qualifying final against Fremantle by just nine points at Subiaco and then the following week lost a semi-final against North Melbourne by 26 points.

Franklin walked back into the club early December.

As he prepares for what he excels at in football - the big occasion, this one being an SCG Swans home game against ladder leader North Melbourne - Franklin boasts a goal average this season which has him smack-bang on target to reach the magical 100 in the Grand Final, provided he plays every game and the Swans finish top four and win qualifying and preliminary finals.
 
Franklin is a five-time All-Australian, a three-time Coleman medallist, an eight-time leading goalkicker at two clubs, a best-and-fairest winner in a premiership season, and a runner-up in a Brownlow.
 
More awards and achievements loom in 2016.
 
From his first season back in 2005, Franklin hasn't always loved everything about football. But those closest to him have always said he loves the game itself.
 
And that that love never waned even as he waded through the turmoil of the latter months of 2015.
 
Twitter: @barrettdamian

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