The ball Lance Franklin kicked for his 1000th goal is back in the possession of the Sydney Swans superstar, with the man who marked it receiving a swag of gifts from the club in exchange for handing it over.
“When Buddy marked the ball he was about 10 [metres] inside the 50. I did a bit of quick maths and realised I’m probably 10 or 15 from the fence, so I thought [I was a] really, really big chance,” he said. “It was always my intention to get it back to the Swans and to Buddy. It’s going to be no good to me, I don’t have a pool room to put it up in unfortunately. It was good to get in contact with the Swans and get it back to them.”Wheeler initially dropped the ball back at his home, near the SCG, before joining his mates at the pub for some post-match beers - but not before jumping the fence himself.
“We went out to one of the pubs locally for a little while and I just got too paranoid that someone was going to knock the footy off from my house, so I went home pretty early and cuddled it up to bed.