Picture this – It’s the 2021 NAB AFL Draft, and the Kangaroos have the first pick, they take the South Australian native Jason Horne-Francis, and the AFL community are excited to see what this young jet can bring to a struggling football club. Could he be the lord and saviour that pulls them out of wooden spoon obscurity? Could he lead them to a brighter future? Could he become an all-time Kangaroos great? The Answer? None of the above.
Instead, the young man that was meant to be the hottest prospect in all the land turned out to be a bit of a bust. He produced average numbers with flashes of brilliance, but he was being outdone by fellow draft picks left right and centre, none more so than Nick Daicos, who went at number 2. Somehow I have a sneaky feeling that when we look back in 20 years’ time, JHF will be nothing more than the answer to a trivia question – Who was the No.1 Pick in the 2021 Draft? And everyone will assume it was Daicos because he turned out just that much better.
It isn’t JHF’s fault, not all No. 1 draft picks can be superstars – Jonathan Patton and Tom Boyd say hello.
We also need to account for the immense pressure put onto the shoulders of the young man who was tasked with reviving an entire club’s losing culture in a very short time, nobody can do that, no one. But here we thought this 18-year-old kid from Adelaide, who still hasn’t fully physically developed mind you, was going to pull off some miracles. So his sub-par performances on the field, that is not his fault, he cannot be judged on the field off one single year and he can still turn things around at his new club. But it is his OFF field performances that will ultimately, prove his downfall.
JHF was rumoured to have attitude problems from the moment he reached the shinboner sanctum and it soon became apparent that the rumours were true, with on-field spats with teammates and claims of homesickness just months into his stay in Victoria occurring just about every other week. Apparently, not all was well with JHF and the caretaker coach Leigh Adams. Reportedly, the relationship between the 18-year-old and David Noble was strong-ish, but the relationship with Adams was far from it. Adams shockingly dropped JHF for the game against Adelaide, which would’ve been his first opportunity to play in front of hometown fans. The reason? He failed to recover properly after a loss to the Swans and due to that skipped icebath, Adams dropped the star recruit to draw a line in the sand – he was not bigger than the club and the club did not revolve around him.
Unfortunately, that only drove him further away and it was official, he wanted out. He was not going to sit around playing for a losing team, with a losing culture, especially if they made him play VFL. Not even the promise of coaching guru Alastair Clarkson could keep him a Kangaroo and he demanded a trade home.
But did he make the right move?
I don’t suspect so. He has traded one club with a losing culture for another and unlike his new one in Port Adelaide, North are actually on the up and for the first time in forever, their culture is about to change. Clarkson has been brought in, and they’ve recruited well and drafted exceptionally. For once the team is actually motivated to do something with their season. Whereas instead of playing for Clarkson, Horne-Francis has elected to play for Ken Hinkley. As a famous commentator once said, “Bold Strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for them!”.
Hinkley’s Port Adelaide have become perhaps the most complacent team in the league without much of a game plan. Having the same voice call the shots for 10 years rarely goes well and it hasn’t here as the Power have sunk into playing formulaic, tired football that just can’t keep up with the modern powerhouses of Melbourne, Richmond and Sydney who move the ball lightning quick. Port fans can try and convince you otherwise all they want, but the club is now at a point where it has a culture of losing and being ok with it, just what North have been doing for years. So moving clubs isn’t going to fix Horne-Francis’ problems at all, if anything it will just make it worse.
Just like his time at North, rumours of a bad attitude have already started, despite the media and PA players/officials ramming it down our throats that he is “Such a genuine, motivated and respectful bloke.”. Maybe they’re telling the truth, but we have seen this movie before.
At the end of the day, North was able to get rid of a player who never wanted to be there in the first place and was a detriment to the club and Port have now potentially inherited that same player if he hasn’t had a major attitude adjustment. So who is the real winner here? Spoiler, they wear blue and white.
Don’t fret Kanga fans, like I said, looking back in a few years time, you’re going to realise it was one of the best things to ever happen to your club.