THERE is always plenty of spice when Sydney and Hawthorn face off.

The Swans bested the Hawks in the 2012 grand final, before the Hawks won out two years later.

In between those two duels, Hawthorn star Lance Franklin crossed to the Swans via free agency.

But when the Hawks and Swans face off this weekend, Franklin could potentially be absent with a groin injury.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett took the opportunity to stoke the fires of the rivalry — saying he wasn’t frustrated by seeing the ex-Hawk in another team’s colours, and joking Franklin “never played well against Hawthorn.”

“No, no I love it. I love playing against Buddy and I’m sorry if he’s not playing this weekend and I can understand if he has a groin injury, that if I was Sydney I wouldn’t be risking him knowing that they are going into the finals,” Kennett told Nova 100’s Chrissie, Sam and Browny.
“Interesting, I’ve known Lance for many, many years, he’s a great guy and he’s grown tremendously over the years but he’s never played well against Hawthorn, he’s never played well, he’s never played well.”

For the record, Franklin has faced the Hawks nine times since joining the Swans.

He has booted 21 goals across those nine games at an average of 0.9 goals less than his career average, while averaging 15.2 disposals and 5.4 marks per outing against his old side.

That included booting five goals against the Hawks in Sydney’s Round 10 loss to Hawthorn last year, and four goals in a losing grand final side in 2014.

When told Alastair Clarkson wouldn’t be “thrilled” to hear Kennett’s cheeky Franklin rev-up, the former Victorian premier said he was being open and honest — and hoped the Swans wouldn’t risk the star forward if he was injured.

“Hang on, you’ve got to be quite open and honest and that’s why I like the challenge, because I’m waiting for the day,” he said.

“If he plays it’s good, but I hope he doesn’t play if he’s genuinely hurt because I think it’s better for the competition if he‘s there in the finals.”

The Hawthorn president said he believed Franklin’s mind transferred back to the brown and gold” when he faced his old side.

Kennett also took the opportunity to praise the way Clarkson and his football department had rebuilt the side to become a contender again.

“No, not good riddance (to Buddy),” he said.

“You know, maybe you don’t, you’ve got to keep renewing your stock, the one thing we’re good at Hawthorn at doing is renewing our stock, and so we’ve made some changes in recent times and we are competitive this year, how deep we go, who knows.”