OF THE 31 people to be named legend in the Australian Football Hall Of Fame, only two were under the age of 50 when the status was granted.

Lance Franklin should become the third.

As per Hall Of Fame criteria, Franklin, who announced his retirement on Monday after 19 seasons in the AFL with Hawthorn and Sydney, will need to wait until 2029 before he is eligible for induction.

But mere induction at that time for Franklin, 36, wouldn't do justice to his career, in my eyes. He deserves legend status. Instantly. At the very least, he needs to have the honour previously afforded only two men - Leigh Matthews and Tony Lockett – in being made a legend before turning 50. Matthews was 44 when part of the inaugural batch of inductees in 1996, and Lockett was 49 when he was elevated in 2015.

With Franklin's goal tally to stand at 1066, he finished his career fourth all-time, entrenched between Lockett at No.1 (with 1360 goals) and Matthews in ninth place (915).

But with Franklin, and like Matthews and Lockett, the goals may have been his main act, but there were so many other compelling layers to his time in football. Bud had an abundant of presence and style. There was the beautiful running action, the walk that was more a strut, the well-earned and fully justified on-field arrogance, the seizing of big-time moments, the clicking of the turnstiles, the conquering of a foreign AFL market.

Buddy may have been the greatest rockstar, the grandest on-field showman the game has ever seen, and it was touching to see him soak up the wild public fanfare in round two at the SCG last year when he became just the sixth player in VFL/AFL history to kick 1000 career goals.

Franklin had nine years at Hawthorn, and 10 at Sydney. His standout season was 2008, his fourth in the AFL, when he had more than 200 shots at goal, for 113 goals in a premiership year.

The really big Franklin highlights – including the seventh and match-winning goal of a 2007 elimination final, match-winning goal of a 2012 preliminary final, extraordinary bouncing goals down the MCG wing against Essendon, and a goal from the MCG centre square after hurdling opponents – were mostly in Hawks colours.

But he was equally brilliant at Sydney and his impact for football itself was ten-fold greater in the red and white, for, like Lockett, he helped propel the Swans into the city of Sydney as well as the minds and psyche of the people in it. It always deeply annoyed me when some people in football would argue that the Swans deal for Franklin was unsuccessful due to the lack of a premiership. I reckon the deal was square after the first three years, when NSW interest in the club was through the roof, which has been maintained.

Franklin's eight All-Australian gongs were shared evenly between Hawks and Swans appearances. His two premierships were as a Hawk (2008 and 2013), and he also played in four losing Grand Finals (2012 as a Hawk, and 2014, 2016 and 2022 as a Swan).

And it was purely his football, certainly not media appearances, which drove his marketing success in Sydney.

Always most comfortable when on an AFL ground, Franklin mostly loathed the media. He played most of his career effectively with a ban on media, and didn't even bother with making one public word himself to mark his retirement.

The origins of that hatred of media can be traced to his late Hawthorn days, when he tired of media fascination with his life off-field and felt a move to Sydney would provide him with anonymity. But he had cause to immediately reassess that outlook when in the 2013-14 summer, his first months based in the NSW capital as he prepared for his first season with the Swans, he was given the full paparazzi treatment on beaches and in bars.

Franklin was said to be shattered that the calf injury he sustained last Saturday night was serious, meaning it was career over for him long before the Swans got to play their final match of 2023.

Franklin's final on-field moments as an AFL legend-in-waiting were spent sitting in the Swans dugout at Marvel Stadium. In isolation and in contrast to the hundreds of all-time highs he created over 19 seasons and 354 matches, the manner of his exit could be viewed as sad.

But we often don't remember, or simply refuse to remember, the lows attached to most of the greats. Only the highs.

Already in the queue for Hall Of Fame legend status are Wayne Carey, Gary Ablett (senior and junior), Jason Dunstall, John Cahill, John Todd, Haydn Bunton jnr and Ken Farmer.

All would be deserving of elevation, but none moreso than Bud. We've never seen a player like him. And we will never see one like him again.