Josh Francou’s path in his coaching apprenticeship has hit a roadblock with Adelaide. Will the Crows let him move on?
FORMER Port Adelaide midfielder Josh Francou crossed the “great divide” to join the Crows coaching panel this year with a three-year contract. Now he wants to move on to Gold Coast.
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JOSH Francou, as to be expected considering his family lines, is one of the toughest men to have taken to any football field anywhere. So his intent to leave the Adelaide Football Club - after just one season of a three-year contract as an assistant coach - does create considerable intrigue.
Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan made this remark last week on TripleM when the question of Francou’s future was posed to him: "Josh Fancou's first year with us has been a challenge. He's decided that's not for him and I think he's going to take some time now to explore opportunities."
Josh Francou does not run away from challenges. Indeed, if Francou is to answer an SOS from his former Port Adelaide team-mate and Sydney coaching partner Stuart Dew to be an assistant coach at Gold Coast, he is proving he does savour and embrace challenges ... rather than run from them.
Francou’s playing style was built on accepting and conquering challenges. The bigger the obstacle, the harder he attacked it. And throughout his playing and coaching career (that began at SANFL club North Adelaide with genuine understanding of the contrasting challenge of influencing a game from the coach’s box rather than on the field) Francou has always been about doing the right thing - and the right way. He is a beacon of integrity.
Fagan’s remarks might be more a reflection on the Adelaide football program - that is up for much scrutiny after the Crows fell from minor premier to 12th with contentious issues ranging from the pre-season camp to the soft-tissue injuries - than Francou.
It always was to be an interesting entry to the West Lakes bubble - as the forwards coach replacing David Teague - considering all that Francou had stored in his memory bank about the Crows while playing for Port Adelaide in 156 AFL games from 1997-2005 with his record marked with an 8-7 record in Showdowns with Adelaide and three Showdown Medals as best-afield in the derbies.
Francou, the runner-up to Simon Black in the 2002 Brownlow Medal, clearly has found the Adelaide Football Club is not the place for him today. But standing out of football for two years to clear away the Crows contract - and returning to teaching - would be a loss for the game.
Adelaide has every legal right to stand on the word of that contract. The Crows can take issue with an assistant coach moving to a rival AFL club to undertake the same job, rather than rise to a senior appointment. But what is being achieved by such a stand, particularly when so many assistant coaches fall on and off the carousel each August and September?
There can be concern at West Lakes in opening the door to let Francou return to Alberton where Port Adelaide senior coach Ken Hinkley is needing replacements to cover the loss of Brendon Lade (St Kilda), Matthew Nicks (Greater Western Sydney) and Aaron Greaves (North Melbourne). But whatever “intellectual property” the Crows fear moving across the boulevard from West Lakes to Alberton is probably already with the Power by former Crows midfielder Scott Thompson’s move to Port Adelaide this year.
Releasing Francou to Gold Coast should not create fear - nor petty retribution - from Adelaide.
Just as Crows forward Mitch McGovern now regrets signing a new contract with Adelaide last year, so can Francou. When a player no longer wants to be at a club, he should move on in everyone’s best interest. Same with a coach.
Adelaide can play hardball to get the best trade deal for McGovern in October. But the same tough stand seems hardly worth the angst with an assistant coach. And the Crows should get out of this habit of delivering a whack whenever some chooses to leave West Lakes.
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michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au