Traded #10: Aaron Francis - Traded to Sydney w. Pick 42 + Future fourth rounder for Pick 37. Thanks Frang!

[Beerfish]

Contract Status: Out of contract 2022
Injury Status: n/a

My Boy Draft 2022: Pick 29, Mr Bultitude

 

[BrunoV]

Has been a slow burn from big red but you can start to see his understanding of the role he is required to play and the limitations he needs to play within.

Someone mentioned about someone else but you hardly notice Francis which is a good sign he isn’t stuffing around or buggering up.


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Noticing the stuff ups is a reference to his use of the ball by foot, surely.

He was pretty comprehensively outpointed by Walker. He only seems to be able to defend a ball he doesn't have to move to.

I'm happy for them to persist playing him on players like Walker because we need to figure out whether he can actually hold down a key defensive post.

 

[Dons4days]

To be fair he actually did okay on Tex. He got one goal from a downfield free which wasn't his fault, Tex also got a another gift picking up a ball that his teammate dropped that should have been dropping the ball. The only genuine loss was the one where he fell over.

Wasn't his greatest game but will benefit from continuity & having more responsibility with Hooker out.

 

[eth-dog]

To be fair he actually did okay on Tex. He got one goal from a downfield free which wasn't his fault, Tex also got a another gift picking up a ball that his teammate dropped that should have been dropping the ball. The only genuine loss was the one where he fell over.

Wasn't his greatest game but will benefit from continuity & having more responsibility with Hooker out.

Tex was probably the most dangeroud forward to HT but he did a really good job after HT IMO

If McStay gets done this week it'll be interesting to see if they play Ballenden or Skinner or both if they drop Smith, both of whom he'd be wholly unsuited to. Not sure who he lines up on in this case.

 

[andleanback]

Personally, he has to play out the year. Its year 5 now for him and we need to see what we have.

If the club think Hooker, Hurley and Ambrose can play togethet then there is no reason that Hooker should force him out. I would drop Gleeson before Francis.

Yep needs to play the rest of the season to see what he has. Personally I don’t think he’s a key back, and Ridley has come in and locked himself into the intercept spot that Francis is more suited to. Id love to see him strip 3-4kg over the summer and play higher up the ground.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Personally, he has to play out the year. Its year 5 now for him and we need to see what we have.

If the club think Hooker, Hurley and Ambrose can play togethet then there is no reason that Hooker should force him out. I would drop Gleeson before Francis.

Just need to play him. And he’ll be on a number of different types of players if Hooker comes back in. He may need to play on smaller players.

See how he goes.

 

[NAB777]

First game back - this year - is not a great indicator, given that players coming in are not having a 'normal' prep... hopefully in the next week or two, he will start edging towards the player we know he can be.

 

[Liberator]

Was noticeably more conservative with his disposal I thought. Only had 9 of them, but went at 100% DE

 

[Ambrosia]

Thought he got beat when he started worrying about his man. Each time he backed himself to read the ball he won the contest.

Probably gets Hipwood this week.

 

[Vander18]

Fought back in second half I thought.....was good in the last quarter with some really strong spoils. This is his biggest strength defensively - he can really kill a contest jumping third up.

Needs to be able to play on people, so enjoyed seeing him thrown the challenge of playing on Tex.

 

[yaco55]

Francis is a bit like Redman in that he is vulnerable when dragged closer to goal - He shapes up as a CHB, rather than a FB.

 

[Howard Moon]

What was that?

I can't watch any more, the same old excuses will come, I know...

We even have shorter games now to less expose the lack of tank, still warbles about with no urgency choosing when to go (when there's a fly at a pack to be had usually)

I can handle the Cameron tackle, no shamr in that but when cey stepped him in the centre like he wasn't there ..... Mannn frang you're a huge bloke, use it, drive that guy into the ground!

 

[eDPS]

Talent - Excellent
Application - Flaky

I don’t think we can fit all of Zerk, Ridley, Hurley and Francis in the same side so as much as I’ve loved Francis since his juniors he either needs a change of position or we might just need to bite the bullet and trade him, I mean he could hide his time for Hurley to retire but I’m honestly not sure he would want to stick around playing twos when a club like the crows could come knocking for his chance to go home.

 

[andleanback]

What was that?

I can't watch any more, the same old excuses will come, I know...

We even have shorter games now to less expose the lack of tank, still warbles about with no urgency choosing when to go (when there's a fly at a pack to be had usually)

I can handle the Cameron tackle, no shamr in that but when cey stepped him in the centre like he wasn't there ..... Mannn frang you're a huge bloke, use it, drive that guy into the ground!

Yep I’m done with Francis, he’s talented as hell, but doesn’t he really want it? Has no urgency or ferocity. At least Bzt looks like he wants to be out there, would rather him play any day of the week.

 

[The Prosecutor]

We're asking him to play as a lockdown defender which is completely in contrast to where he is best suited.

 

[eth-dog]

When he dominated Heeney I thought he'd finally turned the corner. Silly me.

 

[eDPS]

We're asking him to play as a lockdown defender which is completely in contrast to where he is best suited.

We had Hurley shutting down their main key forward in Hipwood, by all rights he should have been intercepting a lot more playing against lesser opposition.

 

[andleanback]

We're asking him to play as a lockdown defender which is completely in contrast to where he is best suited.

Lock down on who? He wasn’t playing on anyone of status tonight.

 

[Howard Moon]

We're asking him to play as a lockdown defender which is completely in contrast to where he is best suited.

Ridley has a mortgage on the role he's best suited.

Adapt or perish as Darwin would say

 

[Howard Moon]

Talent - Excellent
Application - Flaky

I don’t think we can fit all of Zerk, Ridley, Hurley and Francis in the same side so as much as I’ve loved Francis since his juniors he either needs a change of position or we might just need to bite the bullet and trade him, I mean he could hide his time for Hurley to retire but I’m honestly not sure he would want to stick around playing twos when a club like the crows could come knocking for his chance to go home.

At the end of the day we can't hold onto draft position as a reason to keep. I feel for the bloke, he had a tragedy happen right when he was about to embark on his big life achievement.

The request home was clearly a cry for help, but like with Joe we held firm.

Let the lad go home if he wants , might be better for him, might get his career on track, and we might also get something in return.

Sometimes high picks bust. Move on, it happens

 

[Schnitzengruben]

I'm a big Francis fan but tonight wasn't great. Looks totally devoid of confidence. But when the whole team is playing like s**t and coaches are scratching their arses on the bench, is Francis is the bloke to stand up and rally the team? Probably not. But I know this guy can play great football and I really hope we can see something consistent from him soon.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

Needs to be rotated through the guts. Cop the ups and downs as the current standard in there is atrocious as is. At least he’ll be able to hurt some people, kick the ball over the zone and can actually handball further than a person under pressure ten centimetres away.

 

[yaco55]

He is still improving in a defensive sense BUT this seems to have curtailed his attacking instincts - he needs to strike a balance going forward.

 

[IggypopsTshirt]

This bloke has the intensity of a tampon commercial. Package him up with Orazio and * him off.

 

[Vander18]

Was good in the first - his handling and distribution stood out. Faded after that and had no influence.

Certainly haven’t lost faith.

 

[bombreys]

I’ve stuck up for him for a long time, but thought he was really poor last night.

Not sure what they can do. Ridley’s obviously far superior and I thought BZT looked a fair way better last night.

If Tippa can play in the middle for short spurts, surely Francis can too?

Think he’s lucky Gleeson has been so terrible, otherwise he’d be gone next week.