The Norwood Football Club is excited to announce the signing of former Essendon and Sydney defender Aaron Francis.<\/p>\n
Francis heads to the Redlegs ahead of the 2026 season, having spent 10 years in the AFL system and playing 84 senior games for the Bombers and Swans.<\/p>\n
He was drafted from West Adelaide in 2015, and went on to play 54 AFL games with Essendon, before heading to Sydney to add another 30 matches, including 10 AFL games this season.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old has played at both ends of the ground throughout his AFL career, and Norwood General Manager of Football Daniel Menzel said his experience and flexibility would add a lot to the Redlegs side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are rapt to have Aaron commit to our club,\u201d Menzel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has some outstanding experience at AFL level, so he will offer our club so much next year and into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an extremely accomplished player who has played a number of key roles down back and up forward at the highest level, and this was extremely enticing for us. He adds a great dynamic and balance at both ends.<\/p>\n
\u201cAaron is keen to take his leadership to the next step, and we are really excited to see him work with our players and coaches. He will make others around him even better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a player, Aaron reads the game really well. He is a strong intercepting defender, but he\u2019s also done some great lock-down roles. You can also swing him forward if needed, so it\u2019s exciting for the coaching group to be able to pull that lever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis was excited to return to SA and pull on the Norwood guernsey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited, it\u2019s great to be back in Adelaide and playing for Norwood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the Norwood area very well, I went to school at Prince Alfred College just down the road so this is the area of Adelaide I know best.\u00a0The club is highly regarded and respected, so it\u00a0was a pretty clear choice for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know some players here already, having played with Billy Cootee and Alastair Lord at Essendon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis reflected on his 10 years at Essendon and Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lot of highs and lows as an AFL player, I experienced a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting in the Melbourne footy bubble at Essendon, it was a dream come true (being a Bombers supporter as a kid), and then I absolutely loved my time in Sydney where I was able to experience football in a different light.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I am very proud of myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am hoping to use my experience that I gained from my 10 years in the AFL system. Not only that, I am in the prime years of my football career, so I will try to get the most out of my body, and hopefully that translates to wins, pushing for finals and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played a few school games at Norwood, it\u2019s a bit skinnier than the MCG, but the atmosphere, particularly at night is unbelievable. I\u2019m looking forward to get stuck in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis has signed a two-year contract with Norwood, joining Harry Boyd (returning from St Kilda) and Kade Dittmar (from Central District) as key recruits for the Redlegs in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwood Football Club is excited to announce the signing of former Essendon and Sydney defender Aaron Francis.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-291999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}