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

 

[Duckworth]

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.

I would like to see him use his big hips and bump some of the Brisbane players off the ball. At his best he is making good decisions, helping his teammates, and spoiling the contest. He was part of the problem, but not alone, but there were a few times when Brisbane players were all along in the middle of the F50. It was like we were playing with 3 defenders rather than 6.

 

[brutus76]

Can replace Talia at the Crows and we should get a 2nd for him

 

[ant555]

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.

Not really. It is a different skill set. Tippa is an instinctive ground ball type player. Francis is a read the ball in the air marking type player.

 

[yodellinhank]

Can replace Talia at the Crows and we should get a 2nd for him

It wouldn't be the Crows

 

[The Devils Advocate]

Can replace Talia at the Crows and we should get a 2nd for him

Just needs to play more. Needs the Langford pass.

 

[Howard Moon]

Can see him playing on Cameron and it could get messy

 

[Dons4days]

Not really. It is a different skill set. Tippa is an instinctive ground ball type player. Francis is a read the ball in the air marking type player.

He played in there a bit as a junior & looked good.
What harm can it do, it's not like our current midfield rotation is working & he at least adds a bit of size & physicality if nothing else.

 

[ant555]

He played in there a bit as a junior & looked good.
What harm can it do, it's not like our current midfield rotation is working & he at least adds a bit of size & physicality if nothing else.

Actually I still have vision of the Champ games. He had no idea about stoppage work.

 

[Dons4days]

Actually I still have vision of the Champ games. He had no idea about stoppage work.

I'd still try it. It'd be nice to see the coaches do a few things to put us in a winning position every now & then.

 

[ant555]

I'd still try it. It'd be nice to see the coaches do a few things to put us in a winning position every now & then.

Sorry but I can not see Francis the midfielder putting us in a winning position. Francis continually to grow in defense is what I want to see.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Rate him. Has to do what he does best. Hurley, Hooker, BZT and Ambrose are our lockdown defenders so he doesn’t have to do that. Just because Ridley is also good in the role doesn’t mean they both can’t succeed.

He’s contracted til 2022 and not really going anywhere.

It can take time - we never rated Hooker and tried to trade him as steak knives for Josh *in Caddy. Next minute he’s an All Aust intercepting defender.

Pretty easy to forget he’s played 30 games in his career and last season was the first time he played more than five.

For all intents and purposes he’s a second year player.

He’s definitely shown enough in a very short career to persist with.

 

[blitzer]

The weird thing about Francis is that he's improved his weaknesses and got worse in his strengths. So his big weakness used to be his tank and also he had a tendency to be extremely offensive with his ball use in a way that regularly turned the ball over close to goal and would lead to the easiest of goals for the opposition (not always sometimes it worked out great). His major strength was his marking, particularly his intercept marking but even his contested marking was very good.

Nowadays though he's suddenly gone a lot more conservative with his ball use which doesn't bother me overly much as he's reduced the horrendous turnovers that lead to auto goals. But his marking seems vastly diminished. I haven't looked at his stats to see if this is actually true but I remember those series of games that got us all excited about what he could do and honestly we aren't seeing that kind of dare in his play.

 

[nylexbandit]

The weird thing about Francis is that he's improved his weaknesses and got worse in his strengths. So his big weakness used to be his tank and also he had a tendency to be extremely offensive with his ball use in a way that regularly turned the ball over close to goal and would lead to the easiest of goals for the opposition (not always sometimes it worked out great). His major strength was his marking, particularly his intercept marking but even his contested marking was very good.

Nowadays though he's suddenly gone a lot more conservative with his ball use which doesn't bother me overly much as he's reduced the horrendous turnovers that lead to auto goals. But his marking seems vastly diminished. I haven't looked at his stats to see if this is actually true but I remember those series of games that got us all excited about what he could do and honestly we aren't seeing that kind of dare in his play.

I assume the marking is connected with the kicking - told to kill the ball rather than try and grab it. Plus playing most of our games in slick conditions may be highlighting some issues that were previously hidden

 

[bombreys]

Not really. It is a different skill set. Tippa is an instinctive ground ball type player. Francis is a read the ball in the air marking type player.

Similar to Stringer though - get him in for a contest or two to get his hands on the ball/see what he can do.

 

[astrowizzle]

Rate him. Has to do what he does best. Hurley, Hooker, BZT and Ambrose are our lockdown defenders so he doesn’t have to do that. Just because Ridley is also good in the role doesn’t mean they both can’t succeed.

He’s contracted til 2022 and not really going anywhere.

It can take time - we never rated Hooker and tried to trade him as steak knives for Josh fu**in Caddy. Next minute he’s an All Aust intercepting defender.

Pretty easy to forget he’s played 30 games in his career and last season was the first time he played more than five.

For all intents and purposes he’s a second year player.

He’s definitely shown enough in a very short career to persist with.

I never wanted to trade hooker.

 

[CBombers17]

Not sure what the final product is going to look like here but not many would have thought he'd play on Cameron 18 months ago.

Thought he was pretty strong in spoiling the marking contests tonight and kept up with.Cameron Pretty well. He does seem to have bad patches that are so bad it's difficult to see them being anything other than brain fades.

Still, despite KPD not being his go he kept at it and didn't let anyone down.

 

[eDPS]

Not sure what the final product is going to look like here but not many would have thought he'd play on Cameron 18 months ago.

Thought he was pretty strong in spoiling the marking contests tonight and kept up with.Cameron Pretty well. He does seem to have bad patches that are so bad it's difficult to see them being anything other than brain fades.

Still, despite KPD not being his go he kept at it and didn't let anyone down.

He was much better tonight, needs to evolve his game to be able to take on players like Cameron as Ridley has his favoured intercept role all sown up.

 

[eth-dog]

Was good defensively for the most part but ran out of tickets towards the end and a superstar like Cameron is going to take advantage of that

 

[Bunk Moreland]

He was much better tonight, needs to evolve his game to be able to take on players like Cameron as Ridley has his favoured intercept role all sown up.

He and Ridley are fine to both play as HBFs. It’s not like we’re lacking defensive presence. We have plenty of it with Hurley and BZT, plus Hooker and Ambrose when they’re fit. Gleeson too.

There’s no need at all for Francis to be playing on the opposition’s best key forward. None whatsoever. We just cannot put players in their best positions. We can’t do it.

 

[Mikevk123]

Played pretty well. Bounced back well.


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[eth-dog]

He and Ridley are fine to both play as HBFs. It’s not like we’re lacking defensive presence. We have plenty of it with Hurley and BZT, plus Hooker and Ambrose when they’re fit. Gleeson too.

There’s no need at all for Francis to be playing on the opposition’s best key forward. None whatsoever. We just cannot put players in their best positions. We can’t do it.

Pretty much this. Look at Hawthorne's 3-peat defence. They had Hodge, Gibson, Birchall and Lake all basically playing as intercept defenders. Richmond right now have Vlaustin, Grimes and Houli playing an intercept role.

 

[Donakebab]

Both the best and worst of Frang tonight.

 

[Schnitzengruben]

Thought he played pretty well tonight despite a mare or two. For the love of god, keep him in the team and persist with him. Dropping him only hurts his confidence which is his biggest flaw.

 

[ant555]

I liked the fact that gave him the big job. He did a good job. Made a couple or mistakes but there was some fierce pressure on the back 6 at times. I thought it was a big tick for him to be the main man in the back 6. They can not just play him as a flanker forever. Between him , Ridley and BZT they have to transform into the back 3 combo for the future.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I liked the fact that gave him the big job. He did a good job. Made a couple or mistakes but there was some fierce pressure on the back 6 at times. I thought it was a big tick for him to be the main man in the back 6. They can not just play him as a flanker forever. Between him , Ridley and BZT they have to transform into the back 3 combo for the future.

Well if it’s his best position, they can probably just play him there.