Hooker to kick 5 this week.
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Idea of Hooker back and francis forward isnt the worst, in fact some in BlitZ would he happy.
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Francis is so very very not ready to be a full-forward. I donāt think he is ready to even be an AFL player.
Needs more time.
If we are at the stage where Francis is our answer, then the cue is in the rack for the year.
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Francis hopefully next season other wise I will start getting concerned.
Maybe football is very different to life in general, but I have always had the view in my business that you utilize your peoples strengths and donāt get too concerned over weaknesses, unless its gonna land you in jail. So I would always play Mr Hooker at CHB.
That said, he has not played many games as a forward and everyone has bad games; and Gary Lyon is an arsewipe.
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Iām strongly in the Hooker back camp.
But Lyon is talking sh*t. Hooker had a bad game, simple as that. Heās done a good job up forward. But he is an elite defender.
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Gary Lyon is a muppet with an opinion. We all have one.
Cale stood by this club and I will never forget that. He has strength in character and will come good in the forward line (this year).
One bad game and that flog has something to say.
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FINALLY. Iād been waiting nearly two days to hear what Garry Lyon thought.
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Whatās Tim Watsonās username on Blitz?
Drop Hooker for Francis?
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Whereās Ambrose?
Had a bad night like most of the team. I for one certainly wont be reading any more into it then that. Has been great this year. I especially liked it in the WC and Geelong games when he would drop back for the last few mins of a quarter if we had lost momentum. Extremely important player.
He should have dropped back for the last 30 minutes of the last 3 quarters on saturday night then 
Well looks like Hookerās totally failed as a forward because of one poor game and because Gary - of all people - said soā¦
What a ā ā ā ā
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Heās had at least 3 poor games - Carlton and Adelaide too.
He was even worse in the former than the Richmond game and wasnāt alone in the latter.
Whether we like it or not, heās not going to have a great game every week. Heās doing whatās best for the team and that is making it easier for Joe, who is reaping the rewards. With a game like Saturday, itās not his fault that we couldnāt move the ball forward well through the midfield. The lack of ball movement probably factored into those dropped marks, the ball wanāt going in his direction. We donāt have anyone else to fill that position, and even if we did, our defence is performing well, so itās not like we desperately need him down back.
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Bowled Garry!
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Sounds like G Lyon watched his first Essendon game this year. To be fair if that was the first game you saw of Essendon you would think Hooker was brand new to the whole AFL thing.
Thereās no doubt he had an absolute 'mare and I think he got in his own head. It looked like Rance had him beat before the first bounce just by virtue of going over to him and not Joe. Heāll learn from that and be better for it next week.
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While Hooker probably needs a rocket, Garry Lyon can get stuffed.
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I think Hooker probably needs to shift back. He is brilliant there and little more than a random tall up forward. Move Hartley or Brown forward into the random tall role.
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I donāt think there is a ārightā or āwrongā here. I think he is a terrific defender and mediocre forwardā¦ I have like some of what he has done up front but I still feel he would offer far more value down back.
At the end of the day, woosha wonāt change itā¦ so he will either make it as a forward or he will eventually get dropped. Iām pretty sure we are all hoping for the former!
I donāt think he deserves the amount of hate he is getting over Saturday nightā¦ he was clearly one of our worst and had a stinker but no doubt he was playing injured and every player (even great ones) have off days.
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