AFL 2024: Joel Amartey firing after learning from Sydney teammate Lance Franklin

Emerging Swan Joel Amartey says his relationship with Lance Franklin has been crucial to his development as he eyes more bags of goals following a breakout performance against Adelaide.

Amartey produced a matchwinning nine-goal haul from just 10 disposals on Saturday night as Sydney claimed a 42-point away victory over the Crows.

The performance rocketed the 24-year-old into fifth place on the Coleman Medal leaderboard with 31 goals after his previous best season tally was 20 in 15 games last year.

Amartey said his increasing aerobic fitness had contributed to his impressive returns this season along with mentoring from Franklin and another former key forward in coach John Longmire.

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“I guess (Franklin) is the greatest key forward mentor you can have,” Amartey told SEN.

Joel Amartey with retired Sydney and Hawthorn legend Lance Franklin (right) at Swans training last season. Phil Hillyard Credit: News Corp Australia

“The main one is he’s the greatest competitor, I reckon, of all time. His ability to compete on the ground – and playing key forward, it can be a bit dry sometimes when you’re not getting the ball.

“The self-belief in your strengths and what you can bring to the team was a big one he used to instil.”

Selected by Sydney in the 2017 rookie draft, Amartey spent almost three years on the list learning under Franklin before he made his debut in round 17, 2020.

Describing himself as a “strength and power sort of guy”, Amartey said his career-best form was due to hard work on building his aerobic capacity after repeat soft-tissue injuries halted his development over previous seasons.

Amartey’s time on ground was at 80 per cent against the Crows, significantly higher than his career average of about 60 to 65 per cent game time.

He said workload management was behind the decision to bench him in the final term instead of letting him chase a 10th goal, but added he had no problems with the call by the Swans’ medical staff.

“To be honest with you, I was pretty gassed at that stage – I was making little dummy leads I’d never make in my life I reckon at one stage there,” he laughed.

“Given some of my injury history I think they were pretty keen just to get me off and get into next week and recover well, but I wasn’t too willing to look up the box and see Horse (Longmire) there on the phone (to ask to go back onto the ground).

“It’s a conversation I’m not willing to have yet in my career I don’t think.”

Amartey credited Longmire with helping him find a competitive edge he conceded may have been lacking at the start of his career.

“I’m a pretty laid-back sort of guy … it’s probably Horse really who’s the main one (driving me), a key forward himself,” he said.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to bite down on the mouthguard and do what the team needs from you.

“It’s starting to all click this year. I guess you’ve got to look at yourself sometimes and say ‘are you willing to do that for the team?’ And I think this year everyone, the whole squad, myself included have said ‘yeah, we’re willing to do that’.”