I completely agree. It seems to be forgotten that his form in the VFL was quite good and was named in the bests several times. By no means was he busting the AFL door down but even his 2 AFL games were not horrible. He actually doesn’t need to improve too much to get more AFL time.
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Agree - he needs to improve his resilience and become less injury prone to play a longer run of games at VFL that allow him to build a fitness base to play AFL.
At AFL level he was very good whilst he had the tank - in fact, his Q1 at CHF on Anzac Day, I thought, was outstanding and I would have had him BOG at quarter time.
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Player gets drafted… 2 year contract.
At end of year 1 of that contract, into year 2, negotiations are completed and a further 2 year contract is signed.
There’s the first 4 years of any national draftee that isn’t a massive disappointment.
Rookies… very different.
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I think that ‘average’ is a little out of date. Also includes guys who are drafted in later rounds who fill their 2 year contract and then move on. All clubs being forced to draft at least 3 players means that their are some guys on every list that are long range speculators or just filling in numbers.
So I don’t advocate holding onto every player for 4-6 years… and our club has been guilty of hanging on to guys way too long however we are talking about a guy not even into his 3rd year yet.
There is a big reason why a lot of the ‘good news’ stories that filter out about guys in their second clubs doing well include a lot of big men. Lots of clubs were guilty of churning these guys early, they seem to be a little bit smarter about it now.
As others have also mentioned… its not like Francis has stunk it up hugely either… he showed some awesome glimpses in his AFL games just couldn’t sustain it and was solid in the VFL. I still believe that Francis will make it and it won’t be too long before we are making the same jokes about adelaide missing their chance aka GC and Hooker.
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To be fair, nobody actually said much if not any of that… the only speculation was whether there’d be enough interest late in the period to produce a pick that would satisfy us. But carry on.
Did you miss Panic Week? Blitzers were throwing him out for a packet of chips, bemoaning how sad it was that he was only worth that after two years and calling the recruiters and club failures , before heading over to the Stringer thread and demanding that Dodoro throw the farm at WB to get it done, lest we look like fools.
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Blitz is generally pretty bad at reality.
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I must have been looking in different trade threads. I don’t recall a single post where anyone was suggesting to give him away for a packet of chips. The odd person suggesting we take a second rounder and run, but most people saying if we couldn’t get a better deal than that, we should hang onto him.
And re Stringer, some were suggesting we use our 2018 first rounder as long as we get back a second rounder. That’s not a huge amount different to what we ended up paying anyway
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Depended on the chips…but there is already a thread for that.
It irritated me a bit when everyone said he was “going home to Adelaide” as if his family lived in Thebarton or something.
Sure Adelaide is the closest capital city to where his family live, but its not like he could commute to Port or the Crows each day from 250km away.
If we can get 10+ AFL games into Francis this year it will be a success. The kid is still really raw.
If Francis can put together whole games like his 1st qtr ANZAC Day game, then Adelaide/Port Adelaide will really regret not striking when they could have. It showed that he does have it when the tank is sufficient.
Adelaide getting him for a second round would have made me very angry. First round would have made me angry, first round next year, I could begrudgingly live with.
Port Adelaide getting him could have resulted in offenses being committed.
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Yeah this is my idea key back mix.
Ambrose to take the best key forward and blanket them. Hurley to play an attacking CHb and Francis to play a third tall intercept and support role.
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Francis is a gun
Just wait and see
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Essendon supporters page - reports saying Francis was best performed today back at training and is looking like he’s trimmed down.
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Good news. Seafood and salad for Christmas dinner this year.
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Quick, to the lid off thread!
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Wheres the training reports? Franga looks lean, lets hope he keeps it up over christmas break.
What the HELL has he done with his hair?