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Tony Francis Recruitment

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Sep 8, 2011
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In the article in todays Herald Sun about the whole Scully Dad loophole scenario it talks about how Gubby Allan pulled strings to get Francis, Buckley and Anthony Rocca to the pies. Im familiar with the Buckley case and to a degree the Rocca case but whats the story with Francis? Wasnt he drafted in the Draft the same year as Scotty Russell? How was that pulling strings?
 
I remember at the time something about him not coming over for a year and then he suddenly turned up.

The story that usually goes with it is Gubby told him we were one genuine rover away from a flag.

He was great but the real jet was Russell, so balanced.
 
I have total respect for Graeme Allan's ability to lie, cheat, threaten, persuade, etc etc to get the deal done, but I think there's a lot of stuff attributed to Allan that is crap. He didn't have any impact on that draft. They were two lucky choices. Our drafting in the whole of the 1990s was absolutely terrible except for a few bright spots like Chris Tarrant and Paul Williams......and Russell and Francis..

If Allan takes a bow for anything to do with Francis's recruitment, he should take a kick in the rear for the rest of the new recruits that arrived while he was there...
 
HereComes16 said:
I remember at the time something about him not coming over for a year and then he suddenly turned up.

The story that usually goes with it is Gubby told him we were one genuine rover away from a flag.

He was great but the real jet was Russell, so balanced.
Click to expand...
Francis along with Browny were the sparks of inspiration that won us the '90 GF. After Browny got king hit at the end of the first quarter the Pies come out breathing fire in the second but it was Tony's electrifying chase down of Darren Bewick on the HFF/Wing and winning the free for a ferocious tackle at full pace that brought the crowd to their feet and set the Pies on the road to victory.
 

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Markfs said:
I have total respect for Graeme Allan's ability to lie, cheat, threaten, persuade, etc etc to get the deal done, but I think there's a lot of stuff attributed to Allan that is crap. He didn't have any impact on that draft. They were two lucky choices. Our drafting in the whole of the 1990s was absolutely terrible except for a few bright spots like Chris Tarrant and Paul Williams......and Russell and Francis..

If Allan takes a bow for anything to do with Francis's recruitment, he should take a kick in the rear for the rest of the new recruits that arrived while he was there...
Click to expand...

Well played sir! Let's not forget spuds like Shane Watson, Andrew Ukovic etc
 
My apologies for posting on your forum, but your post brings back a lot of personal memories for me.

Just over 20 years ago at the large corporate firm that I was a young grad at, we had a fellow grad that also kicked the ball around at the highest level. He was a great fella.

We used to rib him along the lines of "you must be the smartest grad the firm has ever recruited" as the standard annual grad salary was then about $25K and he was on about $100K+.

He was well liked, and took our ribbing in good fun. There was no Ken Wood from the AFL in those days.

From time to time we would go and watch him, and on one occasion a couple of us managed to be in the rooms before a game, right up until they ran out.

I didn't barrack for the club in question, but the atmosphere in that room before the game, by those players was unbelievable.

I'll never forget it, or the single most impressive looking footballer that I ever seen up close (including my own AFL team whom I do love dearly). He noticeably stood out in the group, not only physically, but just the way he carried himself.

He wore the no 42, and he is remembered fondly and with much respect by many of us who don’t follow the black & white.
 
CAFC said:
My apologies for posting on your forum, but your post brings back a lot of personal memories for me.

Just over 20 years ago at the large corporate firm that I was a young grad at, we had a fellow grad that also kicked the ball around at the highest level. He was a great fella.

We used to rib him along the lines of "you must be the smartest grad the firm has ever recruited" as the standard annual grad salary was then about $25K and he was on about $100K+.

He was well liked, and took our ribbing in good fun. There was no Ken Wood from the AFL in those days.

From time to time we would go and watch him, and on one occasion a couple of us managed to be in the rooms before a game, right up until they ran out.

I didn't barrack for the club in question, but the atmosphere in that room before the game, by those players was unbelievable.

I'll never forget it, or the single most impressive looking footballer that I ever seen up close (including my own AFL team whom I do love dearly). He noticeably stood out in the group, not only physically, but just the way he carried himself.

He wore the no 42, and he is remembered fondly and with much respect by many of us who don’t follow the black & white.
Click to expand...

128783040444541391.jpg
 
Graeme Allan along with the then president Allan McAllister played a big part in the recruitment of Tony Francis.

Story is that Tony Francis was drafted at the end of the 88 season along with Scott Russel, from Norwood and Sturt Respectivley. Despite being drafted (by Gerard Sholly if my memory serves me correctly) both players decided not to come over to the VFL for the 1989 seasion preffering to play in the SANFL as many drafted players did back then.

In the preseason of 1990 the Pies had convined a young Russell who was a virtual unknown compared francis to join them, however Francis was prooving a more elusive target who preffering to spend the year at Norwood

Leigh Matthews knowing that he needed class players to make a charge for the flag, wanted the 20 Y/O Francis, who was considered the best rover outside the AFL. Greame Allen and Allan Mcallister were given the task of going to Adelaide to convince Francis to Come.

In Adelaide they met Francis, however he was adamant that he would not make the transfer until 1991 as he was committed to playing another year in the SANFL. Dissapointed they left Adelaide without their prized recruit's siganture and the trip back was an all nighter by car due to something like an airline strike. They went straight to Vic Park and greeted Matthews early on in the morning to deliver the bad news, only to be sternly told to get their behinds straight back to Adelaide and get Francis, no matter what, he would not take no for an answer and wanted Francis at all costs.

not sure what transpired in adelaide, but as they say in the classics, the rest is history, Francis did come and after a shaky start to his carrer due to a large suspension early on, he became a premiership player along with the virtual unknown Russell in that same year.
 
On his AFL debut, which was also his 21st birthday, Francis was suspended for 6 weeks due to a kicking charge


That must have put a crimp in the 21st celebrations :p
 
There was a whole thing where Tony Francis was going to be held back to get put on the Crows list when they entered the comp in 1991. He entered the AFL at 20 after being paid to not go in the draft when he was 18 by a groupd of administrators that were getting the AFL license that would eventually be for the Crows.
I can't remember exactly but I think Gubby helped his girlfriend 's father open up a business in Melbourne which made them move across to Melbourne.
I remember at the same time Hawks had Darren Jarmans girlfriend getting paid $100k a year as "uniform upholsterer".
 
John Worsfold's brother played in Brisbane when Bux was there for the year, I later caught up with him in Perth, when he was repping for a company that handled a product the company I worked for produced.

We had a late night on the sauce one night over in Perth and he told me a story about how all the top bracket players at the Lions were driving around in cars produced by one of their major sponsors, except Bux who was driving around in a much flasher car commonly know to all to have been provided by the CFC. ha ha
 
Hva sher a said:
Well played sir! Let's not forget spuds like Shane Watson, Andrew Ukovic etc
Click to expand...

"Shane Watson"??? Spud...??? The skunk was probably one of our more consistent players through a very lean time.

144 games
101 goals

No superstar but was still an integral part of the team.
 

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CAFC said:
My apologies for posting on your forum, but your post brings back a lot of personal memories for me.

Just over 20 years ago at the large corporate firm that I was a young grad at, we had a fellow grad that also kicked the ball around at the highest level. He was a great fella.

We used to rib him along the lines of "you must be the smartest grad the firm has ever recruited" as the standard annual grad salary was then about $25K and he was on about $100K+.

He was well liked, and took our ribbing in good fun. There was no Ken Wood from the AFL in those days.

From time to time we would go and watch him, and on one occasion a couple of us managed to be in the rooms before a game, right up until they ran out.

I didn't barrack for the club in question, but the atmosphere in that room before the game, by those players was unbelievable.

I'll never forget it, or the single most impressive looking footballer that I ever seen up close (including my own AFL team whom I do love dearly). He noticeably stood out in the group, not only physically, but just the way he carried himself.

He wore the no 42, and he is remembered fondly and with much respect by many of us who don’t follow the black & white.
Click to expand...

Cheers bro,

Well said.
 
otfc42 said:
"Shane Watson"??? Spud...??? The skunk was probably one of our more consistent players through a very lean time.

144 games
101 goals

No superstar but was still an integral part of the team.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Watson was a very good player for a few years and looked headed for a steller career. At about 25 his career went backwards and he never quite got back to his best.
 
Ed D said:
Didn't he get concussed badly or something and never was the same after?
Click to expand...

Problem was he had his best season as a halfback but Tony Shaw wanted him forward and he never recovered his form there from his first season in that role (1992 I think, Yeah 1992, because Sav took the FF spot about mid year).
 

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