I don’t think this is right.
He had ? over his fitness base, not personal issues at draft time.
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Hope not his far to good to be just another mid. Sure the odd stint, but he is far to good down back to play on ball full time
His older brother died in 2014 which was the year before he was drafted.
With the amount of work we do in interviewing young players in regards to their state of mind and resilience, I’d honestly be surprised if we didnt take into consideration of the potential likelyhood of Grief in this situation.
Grieving can last for years.
I don’t wish to speculate on Aaron’s health issues, but grieving can be a delayed reaction if you refuse to address the emotional reaction early on. Especially when it’s being dealt with by distraction.
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Yah I hope Aaron turns out to be a stellar player…
But wowee way to early to be calling him a bargain.
Guelfi I think you could call a bargain based on his early football vs drafting position. Same with Walla.
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What I was told the other night - so take it with a grain of salt - is that Aaron participated in a winning grand final and after the final siren a coach came straight into the ground and told him his brother was in a bad way in hospital, and he left immediately.
It’s probably not that much of a stretch (if true) that such a scenario could make a young man question his life and his love for the game, but how much and for how long can only be speculated, and hopefully that’s all in the past now.
Not much mentioned about this in the training report.
Someone has to bring up the rear l suppose…
I seriously hope my comments aren’t taken out of context, but for how long in his hopefully 10 year plus career do we need to keep hearing and reading about the sad passing of Aarons brother. Or the circumstances that led to him hearing the news and the state of his feelings now etc .
I for one would just like to read about how he tears up the comp this year.
How about we all move on now and just talk about his exploits on field. For anyone out there that thinks I’m harsh, and uncaring, let me assure you I am not.
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It comes up every now again and will continue to.
It was his brother.
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Yep. Really odd comment.
2nd half of this year was the first time he really showed anything. Goal most weeks and had 2 or 3 really handy games.
Probably still a year away from having a big impact.
your top secret unnamed source is the Age.
Not sure it’s particularly new news.
Why does it have to? We continually talk about a families personal grief. The lad is now in a good space, has worked hard on his fitness and other health issues.
I cannot understand why his brothers passing should be a daily talkfest. We see that boofhead Wayne Carey every day during the season but no one talks about how he cheated on his Mrs, rooted his best mates wife or that glassed his girlfriend.
Terrible analogy I know, but I’m just trying to make the point that old news isn’t discussed forever. Any way for those of you who wish to will do so I suppose, but it’s time we as his non family members moved on.
Quite possible the stuff with his brother wasn’t public knowledge, by his and his family’s wishes.
Daresay the clubs all would’ve known.
So, any news on how he’s going at training? Lets hope this changes the subject
Unfortunately I think until one of the news outlets gets an exclusive interview that has him crying on TV about the loss of his brother they won’t drop it. It’s sad that they will view it as a click and ratings booster and thus keep working on him until it happens.
If I was the club I’d be trying my hardest to do whatever was in Francis interest for mental health, if that keep him away from the media all together then so be it. I’m sure they are being badgered about it though. Probably more so this year once he really bursts onto the scene.
Yep. Best and Fairest placings mean very little in terms how the team went in the season in of themselves. If the top 10 was filled with young up and comers it might mean that our team has improved and the young guys have overtaken the seniors, or it might mean that we had a heap of injuries/form issues to our senior core.
If you knew that Heppell, Merrett, Daniher, Hurley, Hooker, Shiel, Smith, Fantasia, Zaharakis and Bellchambers were the top 10 in our best and fairest next season, it wouldn’t tell you if we were top or bottom 4
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It would tell me none of our stars were injured which would go along way to being top 4
Or everyone else was injured/■■■■ and we went nowhere
Well it was the first I’d heard what had happened and I was sharing it, rather than gate keeping, in the context of supporting my hope that his mental health issues were only temporary. It wasn’t intended as an exclusive, and I was pretty clear my source wasn’t reliable, but thanks for your contribution.
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If Francis can produce what he did in the last few games,consistently across a season,we have an A grade intercept defender.
But it’s not just fitness,as some allude to.
The focus,discipline,and drive to play like that week in,week out, would be mentally taxing.
Talent is unquestioned,and it appears fitness might be there.
Regardless of his family loss, its ■■■■■■ tough to play like that every week. Lets not speculate that its because of his brother, if his form dips and wavers.
It could be that he is simply finding it challenging mentally.
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