Education is the mantra of new Sydney Swans Development Manager Josh Francou, who will oversee the progress of the club’s youngest players in 2014.

Francou, who enjoyed a distinguished 156-game career with Port Adelaide, joined the club in early November and has settled into his role heading up the Swans’ development team.

The 2002 All-Australian, who is also a qualified school teacher, said his love for football and education meant his new role was the perfect fit.

“I’m loving it,” Francou told SwansTV.

“I moved over from Adelaide a couple of months ago and am settling into Sydney.

“It’s a different city to Adelaide in that it’s very big and very busy, but the staff at the Swans are terrific and the players are terrific, so I’ve really enjoyed the first couple of months.”

After retiring from football at the end of 2006, Francou moved away from the game and went back to university to study teaching.

Once he gained his qualification, he taught a grade five class at an Adelaide school for two-and-a-half years before local SANFL club, North Adelaide, approached him about taking on a coaching role.

Family connections tied him to the Roosters, with his father Maurice and uncles Ken and Gary playing their football at North Adelaide in the 1960s and 70s, which led Francou to take up the senior coaching job in 2010.

Francou said he immediately enjoyed the challenge of working with the Roosters’ up and coming talent.

“It was similar to teaching to a certain degree and I loved the coaching aspect of football,” he said.

“In the three years I coached there we saw the development of young players coming through the system at North Adelaide and brought players in from other clubs and watching their development as well was really satisfying.”

Now in his new role at the Swans, Francou said his goal was to help the club’s youngest players adapt to the AFL environment.

“I’ll be overseeing and looking after the one-to-three year players,” he said.

“It’s an exciting time for those young guys and it’s about making their journey or transition, especially for the new recruits, as smooth as possible into the AFL system.

“We hope to get the best out of them and fast track their development so they’re ready to hopefully play senior AFL football in the near future.

“It’s about developing all facets of their life and their game so that they’re ready to play regular senior AFL football and contribute to the footy club.”

Like the Swans’ new players, Francou admitted to being a little overwhelmed when he arrived at the club, and said he was blown away by how well-resourced AFL football had become since he left the game nearly eight years ago.

“It’s a little bit like living in Sydney; it’s big and there’s everything going on,” Francou said about arriving at the club.

“There are a lot of coaches and there is a lot of support for players.

“The players these days are blessed with having the resources and the people to help them fast track going where they need to go as far as their development is concerned.”

Francou said the biggest difference between coaching at North Adelaide to the Swans was the level of access the coaches had to the playing group.

“At state league level the players are obviously working or studying, so you only have access to them for at times only three-to-four hours during the week and game day,” he said.

“It’s nice to be able to come to a club like this that is well resourced and you’ve got access to the players just about all day every day.”

After keeping a keen eye on the Swans’ development group over the last six weeks, a number of players have caught Francou’s attention, including third-year Swan, Harry Cunningham.

“I’ll single out a couple, like Harry Cunningham, who has really impressed me with the way he’s gone about it,” he said.

“The new recruit little Zak Jones has been super impressive as well as has Dan Robinson and Harrison Marsh.”

Francou added that he felt positive about future prospects of the Swans’ youth and said fans had plenty to look forward to.

“I could probably name four or five others, but I think as a group, and we speak about it as a coaching group with John (Longmire) and the senior assistants, we’re really pleased with how they are tracking as a group at the moment.”