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

 

[eth-dog]

I’ve had tendinitis in my elbows, never heard of it for hammies.

Neither have I but it makes sense. Every muscle has tendons so therefore you can get tendonitis in them

 

[eth-dog]

Injury update: Rd 16

All the latest injury news, including Andrew McGrath's syndesmosis setback.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Tom Bellchambers and Aaron Francis have been ruled out of Sunday’s clash with Geelong as the club takes a cautious approach with their rehabilitation.

“Aaron is making good progress following his flare-up of proximal hamstring tendonitis. He is back running again now and feeling much better. He is integrating back into training with the main group,” Rundle said.

“He won’t be available for selection this week but will have a solid training session on the weekend. We will monitor his response to increased training loads in the week leading into the Port Adelaide game to determine his availability to play."

 

[blitzer]

"Blah blah blah something wrong with his hamstring - we probably shouldn't have said he'd be back next week in the first place as most people would have assumed he'd miss about 2-3 weeks and then we would have looked more competent"

 

[eth-dog]

Should just put him on ice for the year.

 

[Lore]

Chance to return against Port pending fitness test

Injury update: Rd 17

All the latest injury news ahead of Saturday's clash with Port Adelaide.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[Lore]

Played in the scratch and seemingly impressed Tudor. Guess he's finally over that hamstring then.

"After a slow start in the first third where the opposition had a lot of inside-50 entries, his second and third thirds were really good. It was the Francis we know - intercepting marks, winning his own ball in one-on-one contests and using the ball very well."

Player review: Scratch match v Saints

All nine players are assessed from Friday's scratch match against St Kilda in Maroochydore.

www.essendonfc.com.au

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Played in the scratch and seemingly impressed Tudor. Guess he's finally over that hamstring then.

"After a slow start in the first third where the opposition had a lot of inside-50 entries, his second and third thirds were really good. It was the Francis we know - intercepting marks, winning his own ball in one-on-one contests and using the ball very well."

Player review: Scratch match v Saints

All nine players are assessed from Friday's scratch match against St Kilda in Maroochydore.

www.essendonfc.com.au

Our man. Stick him on a half back flank.

 

[Seagrave_Holmes]

Not suited to playing as a key defender and he has been overtaken as the interceptor by Ridley. Can we have two similar sized/style interceptors down back? Seems to have regressed this season overall which is worrying.

 

[eth-dog]

Not suited to playing as a key defender and he has been overtaken as the interceptor by Ridley. Can we have two similar sized/style interceptors down back? Seems to have regressed this season overall which is worrying.

Yep. Richmond, Geelong and Hawthorne have done so successfully

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Some will shoot it down but I strongly believe there are lessons in the Ridley experience for other young players on our list, and Francis is among them.

We have an incredible habit of trying to shoehorn players where they don’t play their best footy.

We need to let the best young talent on our list thrive. I’m not exactly sure where that is for Francis, but I’m 99% sure it’s not playing on a monster on the last line.

We have got to nurture players with enormous talent. Let them use their tools and gifts to get comfortable at senior level. If we need to throw them different jobs down the track, so be it.

 

[calyam]

Some will shoot it down but I strongly believe there are lessons in the Ridley experience for other young players on our list, and Francis is among them.

We have an incredible habit of trying to shoehorn players where they don’t play their best footy.

We need to let the best young talent on our list thrive. I’m not exactly sure where that is for Francis, but I’m 99% sure it’s not playing on a monster on the last line.

We have got to nurture players with enormous talent. Let them use their tools and gifts to get comfortable at senior level. If we need to throw them different jobs down the track, so be it.

Francis' best role is awfully similar to Ridley's best role.

Francis has had a great run of games in both 2018 and 2019 playing as a third tall or (relatively) loose defender. He reads the play well and positions himself well for the intercept.

He certainly wasn't used well this season and he definitely isn't suited to 'playing on a monster'.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Francis' best role is awfully similar to Ridley's best role.

Francis has had a great run of games in both 2018 and 2019 playing as a third tall or (relatively) loose defender. He reads the play well and positions himself well for the intercept.

He certainly wasn't used well this season and he definitely isn't suited to 'playing on a monster'.

Players develop. I think Ridley might be more than capable of adding a stronger defensive side to his game in time - the guy is 195cm and has a huge wingspan.

But that’s down the track. What’s important is he’s playing senior footy (he’s played 26 games!) and is being allowed to thrive.

People forget Francis has only played 35 games. Ffs let’s give him some confidence at senior level like we did when he first started.

 

[staaation]

Francis' best role is awfully similar to Ridley's best role.

Francis has had a great run of games in both 2018 and 2019 playing as a third tall or (relatively) loose defender. He reads the play well and positions himself well for the intercept.

He certainly wasn't used well this season and he definitely isn't suited to 'playing on a monster'.

I'm all for playing blokes in their best role, but when you've got another player who is better at that role (Ridley on intercept duty) you have to see if there's something else they can do, which is why Francis was playing on the big forwards.

edit: for what it's worth I think they're better off throwing him into a half forward gig than tasking him with stopping a power forward

 

[Mikevk123]

If they are playing Gleeson surely they can give Francis his spot?

 

[BrunoV]

We need a replacement for Hurley and floating around without an opponent is not a position.

 

[Vander18]

Have to get this guys confidence back up. He will make mistakes, that’s part of the package.....you learn to live with it or move him on.

At his best he’s our best third up spoiler, a good intercept mark and can turn defence into attack with his kicking. He is also very clean by hand, a part of his game that I think is underrated - his handball is better than any of our mids bar, maybe, Parish.

The downfalls are all mental - the loss of concentration, the strange decisions by foot, the failure to execute basic skills. I don’t think you can get value for him in a trade, I think we persevere, be patient and hope like hell it all just clicks at some point.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

We need a replacement for Hurley and floating around without an opponent is not a position.

So get a replacement for Hurley.

And you’re missing the point: let’s get our young players confident at senior level with a few runs under their belt. Not start their careers with “right you need to play here”. Play them where they obviously play their best footy. Once they’re settled, bring on different jobs.

 

[yodellinhank]

So get a replacement for Hurley.

And you’re missing the point: let’s get our young players confident at senior level with a few runs under their belt. Not start their careers with “right you need to play here”. Play them where they obviously play their best footy. Once they’re settled, bring on different jobs.

Everyone plays their best footy as an unaccountable 3rd man up. Then what do you get, a player you can't drop because they have runs on the board. No thanks.

 

[cAsEy_18]

Have had a thought for a while now that we develop all our key defenders to be good marks, but not necessarily good 'defenders'.
Think about it.

Hooker - biggest strength is marking.
Ridley - Come on the scene as an intercept marker.
Francis - Much better as an intercept marker/3rd man up than strength-in-the-contest defending.
Even Hurley - Came on the scene as a strong 1v1 player. Has gone significantly backwards in this department in recent years.
Watching Zerk come up against Dixon in particular - A number of times, he was deliberately staying away from Dixon, and running at any marking contest from a different direction to meet him in the air. The couple of times he found himself in a push and shove, he grabbed Dixon's arm (got away with it a few times).

The only exception to this, I think in the last 10 years or so, is Ambrose.

It has to be the way we develop these guys - prioritising intercept markng before positioning/body work/nudging your guy under the contest, all those little 'defensive' things.

So where's that leave us? Not sure. Both Ridley and Francis seem far more suited to this intercept role. I think that's okay to have a couple. But we need at the very least 1 key defender to be able to hold their own in a strength, defensive, 1v1. Before this year, was hoping that's what we were developing Zerk to be. Now, not so sure.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Everyone plays their best footy as an unaccountable 3rd man up. Then what do you get, a player you can't drop because they have runs on the board. No thanks.

You can develop them from there. Ridley has played 25 games, his development doesn’t stop now. I think he’ll definitely add a move defensive side to his game. But he’s playing senior footy and is confident in it.

 

[BrunoV]

So get a replacement for Hurley.

And you’re missing the point: let’s get our young players confident at senior level with a few runs under their belt. Not start their careers with “right you need to play here”. Play them where they obviously play their best footy. Once they’re settled, bring on different jobs.

He's a fifth year player and had 1.5 seasons to play the role he wanted to play.

His biggest problem right now is that he's not the player we need him to be.

When does he become a defender?

 

[Mikevk123]

Bust

 

[citizen-erased]

He's a fifth year player and had 1.5 seasons to play the role he wanted to play.

His biggest problem right now is that he's not the player we need him to be.

When does he become a defender?

i'd argue he's never really been one.
I've not seen a defensive side to his game from his U18 days.

He's an intercept marker who should be transitioning us from D50 to F50.
7th defender type stuff, who is technically a midfielder but not playing midfield as such.

 

[BrunoV]

i'd argue he's never really been one.
I've not seen a defensive side to his game from his U18 days.

He's an intercept marker who should be transitioning us from D50 to F50.
7th defender type stuff, who is technically a midfielder but not playing midfield as such.

I got sucked in in 2018 but the warning signs have been evident before then and certainly since 2019.

He needs to be much more versatile than he is. Having said that, he's played from Heeney to King and hasn't looked dramatically out of place (in the sense that it is not like he couldn't keep up with either).

There are definitely times a player needs to develop strings. Francis can probably do it and he should certainly be made to.

 

[citizen-erased]

If we can teach Franga and Ridley to have one engage an opponent and another to pick off the mark (think Vlaustin/Grimes), the two can play in the same side.
I think both are quality as 3rd/4th defenders.
Strong hands & good disposal.