It appears there will be a seamless transition at Bomberland, with Fletcher to hand over his longtime role as backline general to emerging star Jake Carlisle.
It's some succession plan, and we gained a fascinating glimpse of it - and life without Fletcher - during Essendon's remarkable, emotion-charged win over Fremantle at Patersons Stadium on Friday night.
When Fletcher was subbed out of the match with a groin problem midway through the third quarter, more responsibility was suddenly thrust Carlisle's way.
And it wasn't as though the 21-year-old didn’t already have enough weight on his broadening shoulders, as he had the job on Freo skipper Matthew Pavlich, a six-time All Australian and six-time club champion.
Interviewed by Channel seven post-match, Carlisle admitted he was concerned at the sight of the evergreen Fletcher wearing the red sub's vest.
"I saw it on the screen and I nearly started crying, to be honest," he said. "I'm like, 'Far out.' We were struggling for defenders."
However, Carlisle didn’t let his internal doubts bubble to the surface. He accepted the challenge manfully, while maintaining a steely focus and a stranglehold on Pavlich.
That he received the maximum 10 votes from James Hird and Ross Lyon in the AFL Coaches Association's Champion Player Of The Year award, and in such a high-pressure, hostile environment, spoke volumes of his temperament and development.
Carlisle kept Pavlich scoreless (it was just the sixth time in the superstar's past 154 games that he hadn’t troubled the scorers) and restricted him to just 10 disposals and two marks.
In a performance that belied his youth and 31-game experience, Carlisle also generated plenty of run from the back half, gathering 18 disposals (11 contested), six marks (three contested) and seven defensive rebounds.
A terrific athlete who is deceptively quick and mobile for his 200cms and 98kgs, he also won a crucial contest that led to teammate Patrick Ryder snapping the winning goal.
Inside the last two minutes, Carlisle was opposed to three Dockers at half-back. His first attempt to clear the ball was smothered but he succeeded the next time, blind-turning and directing a deft bounce-pass to Courtenay Dempsey, which started a critical forward surge.
It was inspiring, 'Fletcher-like' stuff, and it was completed, as usual, with a minimum of fuss.
Post-match, Carlisle added that he was "loving the challenge" of being assigned the job of stopping the opposition's best forward.
"I'm just taking it with both hands," he said.
Fremantle v Essendon?
10 Jake Carlisle (Ess)
7 Nathan Fyfe (Frem)
5 Brendon Goddard (Ess)?
4 Heath Hocking (Ess)?
2 Michael Hurley (Ess)
1 Hayden Ballantyne (Frem)
1 Michael Walters (Frem)
