Performance Coach Dan Jordan says Aaron Francis is ‘knocking on the door’ for senior selection after another impressive performance in Essendon VFL’s 54 point win over North Ballarat.

Francis finished with 13 disposals, four marks and laid one tackle.

“He has had two positive weeks in defence. He is defending well but also reading the ball well and giving us some intercept marks but still being really accountable on his man,” Jordan said.

“He just has to wait for an opportunity to open up in the seniors, hopefully over the next couple of weeks one does, but if not he should continue to play consistent footy at this level.

“He is certainly putting his best foot forward in regards to breaking into the side.”

Shaun Mckernan was another strong performer for the Dons. He finished with 16 disposals, three marks and two tackles.

McKernan had a slow start playing at full forward before the decision was made to move him into the ruck in the second half where he was able to run forward and boot two goals for the Dons.

“As can happen with any deep forward – he was struggling to move a little bit so we decided to move him into the ruck to get him some ball and get him moving,” Jordan said.

“He found his hands on the footy and started to dominate in the hit outs, that translated for him kicking a couple of goals.

“Sometimes you just have to do that to get guys around the ball and get them into it, and it worked today.”

After a tough loss to Richmond last week, Jordan said he was proud of the way every player responded and contributed to the Dons big win.

“We had a lot of contributors today,” Jordan said.

“It was a pretty even spread – it was a good team effort.”