{"id":545211,"date":"2026-03-17T01:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545211\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T01:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:44:11","slug":"buddy-locked-in-for-special-comeback-in-country-wa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/545211\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddy locked in for special comeback in country WA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary former Sydney Swans and Hawthorn goal-kicker Lance \u2018Buddy\u2019 Franklin is heading back to where it all began.<\/p>\n

The proud Dowerin product will line up for his junior club in a special one-off appearance on Saturday, April 18, in the Tigers\u2019 home opening-round clash against Gingin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be going back to my junior football club back in WA, Dowerin Football Club,\u201d Franklin said on his Buddy & Shane Show podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go back there and play a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about this, I never thought I\u2019d get the opportunity to play for my junior football club.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s popped up, this opportunity. I\u2019m really excited to get back there and have a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin, an eight-time All-Australian who kicked 1066 goals during a decorated 354-game AFL career, said the inspiration behind his shock return was to help raise money for a new lighting upgrade at Dowerin Oval.<\/p>\n

Donations can be made for the lighting upgrade here, with club aiming to raise $300,000.<\/a><\/p>\n

Franklin started his footy journey in the Wheatbelt town before moving to Perth when he was 15 to attend Wesley College as a boarder.<\/p>\n

The four-time Coleman Medal winner joined Perth Football Club\u2019s WAFL program before getting drafted to Hawthorn with pick five in the 2004 AFL National Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Dowerin, the footy club was a huge part of the community, so it\u2019s pretty special to be able to come back and pull on the jumper again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting out there with the boys and helping the club raise money for their facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the special clash can be purchased through this link until April 2.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary former Sydney Swans and Hawthorn goal-kicker Lance \u2018Buddy\u2019 Franklin is heading back to where it all began.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-545211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}