Joshua "Josh" Francou (born 7 August 1974) is a former professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He is currently serving as an assistant coach at the

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

Port Adelaide (1997–2006)

Debuting with

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

as a 22-year-old, Francou was part of Port Adelaide's inaugural team. He was one of the club's best players, playing every game, averaging a respectable 15 disposals per game as well as kicking 16 goals for the year. He played every game the next season also, averaging 16 disposals. In the 1999 season, Francou missed out on just three games. Port Adelaide played in their first final in that year, losing to the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

by 44 points. The 2000 season was a good one for Francou, averaging 22 creative disposals a match. He continued to average over 20 disposals the next season, kicking 7 goals in both years. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, he once again averaged over 20 disposals, and for the first time since 1998, played in all games.

Injuries and retirement (2003–2006)

In his early career in the SANFL, Francou dislocated his left knee so badly, that it bent 90 degrees, which forced him out of the game for over a year. In recent times, he has been ravaged with knee-reconstructions, one in just his second game of the year in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, and then another injury to his other good knee in Pre-Season

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. He was able to play every game except one in 2005 (despite battling

osteitis pubis Osteitis pubis is a noninfectious inflammation of the pubis symphysis (also known as the pubic symphysis, symphysis pubis, or symphysis pubica), causing varying degrees of lower abdominal and pelvic pain. Osteitis pubis was first described in pa ...

). He injured both his left and right knee. On 23 August

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, Francou announced his retirement after playing only 23 games since his

knee reconstruction Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL reconstruction) is a surgical tissue graft replacement of the anterior cruciate ligament, located in the knee, to restore its function after an injury. The torn ligament can either be removed from ...

in 2003, and no games in his final year (2006).

Since retirement (2006– )

Josh joined radio station 5AA, replacing

Russell Ebert Russell Frank Ebert (22 June 1949 – 5 November 2021) was an Australian rules footballer and coach. He is considered one of the greatest players in the history of Australian rules football in South Australia. Ebert is the only player to have ...

as special comments commentator. He also wrote for the ''

Adelaide Advertiser Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...

''. Josh Francou has also worked as a part-time Physical Education teacher at

Banksia Park International High School Banksia Park International High School is a government international secondary school in Banksia Park, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It has about 1000 students. The school has a large and well-established international programme, sta ...

and

Pulteney Grammar School Pulteney Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, co-educational, private day school. Founded in 1847 by members of the Anglican Church, it is the second oldest independent school in South Australia. Its campuses are located on South Terrace ...

in South Australia – and taught full-time at

Prince Alfred College , motto_translation = Do Brave Deeds and Endure , established = 1869 , type = Independent, single-sex, day & boarding , headmaster = David Roberts , chaplain = Reverend ...

and

St Peter's College, Adelaide , other_name = The Collegiate School of St Peter , seal_image = St Peter's College, Adelaide Logo.svg , seal_size = 150 , image = SPSC chapel and memorial hall.jpg , image_size ...

. Josh is an assistant coach at the

in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

, joining in 2019. Josh has also been an assistant coach for both Sydney Swans and the Adelaide Crows. Josh goes by the nickname “Wazza”.

Statistics

:Josh Francou's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 22 , , 16 , , 15 , , 214 , , 122 , , 336 , , 54 , , 44 , , 0.7 , , 0.7 , , 9.7 , , 5.5 , , 15.3 , , 2.5 , , 2.0 , , 1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 22 , , 12 , , 15 , , 243 , , 154 , , 397 , , 50 , , 54 , , 0.5 , , 0.7 , , 11.0 , , 7.0 , , 18.0 , , 2.3 , , 2.5 , , 7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 20 , , 10 , , 8 , , 224 , , 168 , , 392 , , 42 , , 48 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 11.2 , , 8.4 , , 19.6 , , 2.1 , , 2.4 , , 6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 20 , , 7 , , 10 , , 237 , , 192 , , 429 , , 34 , , 46 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 11.9 , , 9.6 , , 21.5 , , 1.7 , , 2.3 , , 8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 22 , , 7 , , 7 , , 308 , , 224 , , 532 , , 67 , , 81 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 14.0 , , 10.2 , , 24.2 , , 3.0 , , 3.7 , , 19 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 25 , , 13 , , 13 , , 259 , , 269 , , 528 , , 42 , , 100 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 10.4 , , 10.8 , , 21.1 , , 1.7 , , 4.0 , , 21 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 2 , , 0 , , 0 , , 8 , , 15 , , 23 , , 4 , , 5 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 4.0 , , 7.5 , , 11.5 , , 2.0 , , 2.5 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 0 , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 10 , , 23 , , 7 , , 13 , , 179 , , 204 , , 383 , , 70 , , 82 , , 0.3 , , 0.6 , , 7.8 , , 8.9 , , 16.7 , , 3.0 , , 3.6 , , 5 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 156 ! 72 ! 81 ! 1672 ! 1348 ! 3020 ! 363 ! 460 ! 0.5 ! 0.5 ! 10.7 ! 8.6 ! 19.4 ! 2.3 ! 2.9 ! 67

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Francou, Josh 1974 births Australian rules footballers from South Australia Australian people of Greek descent Port Adelaide Football Club players Port Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions) North Adelaide Football Club players North Adelaide Football Club coaches South Australian State of Origin players All-Australians (AFL) Magarey Medal winners South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Living people Australia international rules football team players