Yes it is.
3 extra quarters? I guess this shows how much attention you paid to the game.
Baldwin looked good first up. Offered more than JUH 
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Francis took a big block of last year off to get back into a positive mental state. Thatās really recent and shouldnāt be ignored. Then he returned to play forward, without any practice in the role. And he competed well, did a lot of 1%ers and score assists, but wasnāt the dominant presence in front of goal. Which is what youād kinda expect.
Now heās had a preseason training as a forward. He has a game where he hurts himself in the first quarter, but comes back on and gets back up to speed. Runs out the game and does a decent amount of stuff as a high floating forward role.
This is what recovery and development look like. Heās allowed to be a bit rusty in the first practice match. He ran out the game physically and mentally, which is a change from last year.
Francis getting himself physically and mentally fit is one thing. Heās still sitting on 5 or 6 games as a forward. Heās allowed to take a bit of time before we throw him to the scrap heap. Heās been training as a forward for maybe 6 months, so how about we wait 3 or 4 games and see how this pans out.
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Hes played forward and trained as a forward for multiple periods of time during his career. Still dont think the comparison between he and walla from a MH perspective is at all reasonable in these cicumstances.
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Look, we are going to have to disagree. Francis and Walla are 6 months apart on the same journey. This wonāt be a magic button that Francis has pressed and suddenly everything that caused him problems has disappeared.
Francisās playing development state is 100% impacted by his mental health history. To ignore that is to massively disrespect the awesome recovery the guy is making.
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Im not ignoring his MH struggles and not disrespecting the journey he has been on. But your initial post was trying to explain how walla is getting more sympathy than francis and how people here treat him differently which is utter nonsense as the forum has collectively rallied around Francis on multiple occasions and absolutely shat on anyone who downplayed his struggles.
Yes. People on here were extreme supportive of Francis when his struggles were clear and obvious. But there seems to be a very short memory on that stuff. Instead of looking at the very real positives of where heās got to, people are looking to drop him and replace him with the next shiny thing before heās had a chance to prove himself.
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He really has not gotten anywhere though. Heās not playing any better than he has at any point in his career, so not sure what āreal positivesā in terms of his actual game youre getting at.
Hereās what Iām predicting based off what I saw last year and what Iāve seen over the last two practice matches.
Francis will play a high marking forward role. He will provide a contested marking avenue and will be positioned to use his foot skills to create quality entries into F50.
He will also scrap for the ball more effectively and creatively than the other talls. That will bring the smalls into the game.
Marking and goal scoring will sharpen up as the season goes on. But he will make the forward unit as a whole more effective.
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Hmmm.
You really think that is whyā¦.?
And I want to make very clear that Iāve been on the Baldwin hype train since November 2020. Iām stoked that heās on our list and I expect him to dominate our forward line for a decade.
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OK thats great, sure. Not sure what any of that has to do with your initial moaning about how we have treated him
Of all our talls, none of whom did amazingly well, Francis has been targeted for poor performance in that game.
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Really? Iāve seen more (and much worse) complaints about 2MPās game. I wouldnāt say that Francis has been specifically targetted.
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Dude Francis has not been targeted. Get a grip. All of them have been called out for being rubbish.
Iām not sure you could say with a straight face that 2MP got away without any scrutiny.
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A lot of people confuse criticism with attacking or negativity.
This is going to be the 7th year at the club for Francis, and he still hasnāt improved a whole lot. Thatās just the truth.
Does that mean people hate him, and want him to have mental health issues?? No. Of course not.
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I think when people suggest Baldwin play ahead of Franga, or that he is ahead of him, that Franga offered nothing when the ball hit the hand, or that he showed no second effortsā¦.then that is some blind level bias.
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I think Francis looks fitter, and made more contests. He just doesnāt do enough for me. He just canāt hit the scoreboard, and constantly flies around, missing marks.
I also think Baldwin needs a bit of time in the VFL. And I love Baldwin.
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I think only legit Dimwits are suggesting that Baldwin is playing round 1 ahead of Franga, and only few people are saying that Franga offered nothing. Overwhelming majority are praising is 1%ers and second efforts.