A number have improved. Saad, Stringer and Smith are all playing better than at their previous clubs. Ambrose, Langford, Parish, Redman, McKenna, Guelfi have improved. Some believe that Chook and Hurley are in All Aust form so they must be playing alright. Begley, Laverde and Clark are looking capable at the level.
Smith was AA squad last year, before injury wasnāt close to that performance, every player on the list who has been AA Heppell, Hurley, Hooker, Merrett, Stringer, Daniher all arenāt close to AA years, and Langford, Ridley, Parish, Clarke, Laverde, Begley, Guelfi and Redman are in and out like yoyoās, none have cemented their spots yet.
Shiel was better at GWS also.
I agree with you 
They pulled him out of the VFL last week, and I was so confident he would play in place of Stringer.
This farcking coach has his favourites and he played Brown instead.
Now in his 4th year Francis needs to develop in the seniors not the VFL.
Worsfold should have played Hooker in the fwd line and Francis in defence.
The longer it takes to sign/announce his contract concerns me, even though Iāve heard and read how much he loves the players and the club. There is much more upside to playing Francis than Brown and I just donāt get it.
On itās own, itās a perfectly reasonable suggestion.
But.
Take Hooker out of the backline Thursday night and it wouldnāt be inconceivable that we lose by another 30 points. And then guess what? Itās sack the coach again for making another deplorable decision.
Excellent. We got there in the end!
Have to disagree here, he doesnāt pick a side due to heās favourites thatās just rubbish talk, Francis hasnāt performed the role heās been asked to play this year itās that simple, and heās not good enough (at this stage)to replace any of our back 6. To suggest he play on a darling or Kennedy Thursday night instead of hooker is way off the mark. Imagine heās confidence after having 6-10 goals kicked on him?? Thatās exactly what would have happened. If he wants to leave instead of fighting for heās defensive spot well good riddance, still not confident at all heās up to it anyways
Who are we kidding very few Essendon players are ready when the going gets tough.
Great post, agree with all of it.
Francis has clearly shown that he has more talent than anyone in the current backline.
We need to embrace and fully commit to elitism as the only way to win our next flag.
We need to be courageous and show faith in his undoubted talent.
You need to take risks if you are interested in glory and fame.
The Francis love in Blitz is widespread but this is next level.
Impressive considering thereās 2 all Australians down back
Agree. That was also the era in which a player could carve out a good career bludging a kick behind the play without an opponent - Paul Roos was the prototype, plenty of others followed through the 1990s-2000s. Significantly harder to do in todayās game.
Until such time as Francis shows heās capable of doing something more than taking a few nice grabs as an unmarked man in defence, heās going precisely nowhere. Very limited players like Jason Cloke, David Teague, and Liam Jones have all looked like world-beaters in this role at one point in time or another - tells you something.
Spot on
find it hard how you want to embrace and fully commit to elitism as the way to the flag, and then go on to support Francis.
Iām all for playing him cos I do believe he has a higher ceiling than most, but the drive to āelitismā actually prescribes achieving peak fitness, rewarding hard work etc rather than backing prodigiesā¦ redman and brown (for example) both must came from further back but continue to work hard on field and surely off it why they deserve to be pickedā¦
So much this. We are doing exactly what we did with Hurley. A natural defender and we are putting him up forward. Just let him develop in his best position in the backline. If that means he doesnāt get in the team becuase the incumbents are playing well, then so be it
Still manages to snag 4 today in what still looks like at times heās going through the motions and a position he doesnāt know how to play, massive positive . To be honest so many nearly marks here and their to where he usually clunks them couldāve been a day out. As I said earlier the most pleasing aspect of today is the bit of carnt he showed, like seeing that passion from him
Was good today.
However, he got his hands to so many marking situations today and mostly dropped them. These were marks he was taking late last year in the seniors.
I think things will eventually line up for him and heāll be a star. Not sure of this though. If so I hope itās with us.
Super confidence player. Something that did stand out is heās elite vision. Not many on our list wouldāve or couldāve squared that one up in the square that last qtr
I think you mean end of the second quarter for the square up?
Francis had a very selfless game today; he made a lot of people on the outside or running through look good.
If heād converted a few 50/50 chances heād have kicked at least 6 goals, not just 4.