Unless the Swans were prepared to pay a significant portion of his exorbitant contract over the final three years, Lance Franklin is virtually untradeable. It is a hypothetical trade that belongs in the realm of fantasy football competitions.

The club that took on Buddy would be picking up the following: a 33-year-old due about $1.4 million next year, a 34-year-old owed approximately $1.5 million in 2021 and then a 35-year-old Franklin entitled to "only" $1 million in the ninth year of that contract in 2022.

Virtually untradeable: Lance Franklin. Credit:AAP

No club that Franklin would consider, would entertain those numbers - a tick under $4 million over three seasons - despite his lofty stature in the game. No club in finals contention has that kind of room in their salary cap, and in the unlikely event that a lowly team was seduced by the prospect of landing Buddy, I can't see Franklin crossing to a team with little immediate prospects of success.

Buddy will almost certainly be the highest paid player in the competition over 2020 and 2021, and his output is - quite reasonably and predictably - on the downswing. He has already defied the life cycle of normal footballers to be among the top handful of players in the game last year and remains Sydney's most dangerous player.