AFL trades 2022: Mega-deal goes through involving Jason Horne-Francis, No.1 pick and Junior Rioli
The revived four-club mega deal has delivered Jason Horne-Francis to Port Adelaide. But that wasn’t all the Kangas gave up.
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North Melbourne pulled the trigger on the Jason Horne-Francis deal after coming to the realisation he would not maximise his talents as a Roo.
The 19-year-old midfielder will continue his AFL career in his home state for Port Adelaide thanks to a blockbuster four-club trade on Monday that saw him and Junior Rioli land at the Power.
The Kangaroos were central figures in the deal as they not only granted Horne-Francis, the No.1 pick in last year’s draft, his wish to depart but also offloaded this year’s top selection to the Giants.
They now have the second and third picks in the 2022 draft — although No.3 could still be up for grabs — as well as acquiring Port’s future first-round selection in what North list boss Brady Rawlings said was a “special” class.
Picks 40 and 43, which the Roos also received, will end up being in the 30s once Brisbane matches early bids on father-son prospects Will Ashcroft and Jaspa Fletcher.
They also remain hopeful of trading for St Kilda’s Hunter Clark, who Rawlings said was “keen to come” if the Saints have a late change of heart and are willing to part with him.
“We got to a point where we didn’t think that we could get the best footy out of (Horne-Francis), if he was to stay in Melbourne for another year, given how strong the pull home is,” Rawlings told News Corp.
“When the request came through, no doubt it was disappointing. But having said that, we’ve got a player who obviously wants to be somewhere else.
“We want players at our football club who want to be here and want to play for the jumper and want to play for their mates.
“That’s not the case (with Horne-Francis), obviously, so we need to look at that and for our own playing group, make sure we can make a commitment to our group that we bring players in who want to be here.
“Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker are two great examples, and now with picks two and three and our future first and Port Adelaide’s future first, we’ve got the opportunity to bring in some quality individuals who are top-end footballers and characters.”
The Giants are strongly linked with promising key forward Aaron Cadman, who hails from country Victoria, but Rawlings said North Melbourne had struggled to separate the top three players, behind Ashcroft, on its draft board.
He is keeping those players to himself but are likely to be between George Wardlaw, Harry Sheezel, Elijah Tsatas and Cadman.
“If we pick at one, we’re going to get only one of those players, but by getting two and three in, we know we’re getting two of our top three players in this draft,” Rawlings said.
“And who knows? We might get our top two players.
“That was critical to the deal to move on one; that we needed two and three and now we’ve got two picks in next year’s draft, which looks special ... it’s going to be really good.”
Rawlings retains strong belief in the club’s playing list and believes there are brighter days ahead.
“We’ve got some great young talent, 24 and under, and we have obviously just added to it with a couple of players from another club (Logue and Tucker),” he said.
“We’re potentially picking two of our best two or three players in this year’s draft and we’re still sniffing around Hunter as well.”
Who won four club mega deal?
A revived four-club mega deal has delivered Jason Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli to Port Adelaide and seen the Giants snatch North Melbourne’s No.1 pick.
The AFL on Saturday blocked the Power’s bid to trade future first and second-round picks, which temporarily stopped a multi-club swap going through that was set to also include Brisbane and Hawthorn.
But News Corp revealed on Monday that North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, West Coast and the Giants agreed to a restructured trade that received the AFL’s tick of approval.
The crux of the previous arrangement is still in place.
Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli will join the Power, GWS will score North’s pick 1, the Kangaroos will receive picks 2, 3 and Port’s future first-rounder, and the Eagles get selections 8 and 12.
Port Adelaide also traded future second and third-round picks as part of the convoluted swap, as well as several later selections this year.
That was possible because the Power received Collingwood’s 2023 second-rounder and Fremantle’s future third-rounder to satisfy AFL rules.
The Magpies sent that pick to the Giants in the trade that netted them Bobby Hill, while the Dockers’ pick was tied to the deal that resulted in Griffin Logue and Darcy Tucker becoming Kangaroos.
The trade brings an end to a tumultuous debut season for Horne-Francis, who North Melbourne crowned the dux of last year’s draft class, and offers him the chance for a fresh start in his home state.
The 19-year-old budding star told the Roos on trade period eve that he wanted to play for the Power, setting the wheels in motion for the blockbuster trade.
Horne-Francis has signed a six-year deal with Port Adelaide, while Rioli inked a four-year agreement.
“Jason is a highly talented player who we know will complement our developing and exciting midfield group,” Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps said.
“He is competitive and aggressive, and we like his power and explosiveness as well as his ability to go forward and hit the scoreboard.
“Once Jason indicated a desire to be traded to our club, we explored a range of options to satisfy North Melbourne and ensure he would be a Port Adelaide player in 2023, and we are thrilled to welcome him to Alberton.”
The mega deal capped a flurry of trade activity on Monday that saw Luke Jackson become a Docker, Toby Bedford a Giant, Izak Rankine join the Crows and Will Setterfield cross to Essendon.
EARLIER: MEGA TRADE BACK ON
The mega deal is back on – and Jason Horne-Francis is set to become a Port Adelaide player.
The AFL on Saturday blocked the Power’s bid to trade future first and second-round picks, which temporarily stopped a four-club swap going through.
But North Melbourne, Port, West Coast and the Giants have since agreed to a restructured trade that is sitting in front of league officials for approval.
The crux of the previous arrangement is still in place.
Horne-Francis and Junior Rioli will join the Power, GWS will score North’s pick 1, the Kangaroos will receive picks 2, 3 and Port’s future first-rounder, and the Eagles get selections 8 and 12.
Port Adelaide will trade out future second and third-round picks as part of the convoluted swap, as well as several later selections this year.
But this time the Power receives Collingwood’s 2023 second-rounder and Fremantle’s future third-rounder to ensure the deal satisfies AFL rules.
Those selections came in separate trades that the Giants and North Melbourne were involved in.
Why Port will have to pay up for Ratugolea
– Jon Ralph
Geelong is making promises to Esava Ratugolea it knows it cannot keep.
It is telling the 24-year-old there is a meaningful role for him next year after only four AFL games in 2022.
The problem for Ratugolea, a newly re-cast intercept defender after two dominant VFL games in rounds 20 and 21, is that there are just so many star-studded teammates ahead of him.
In defence he is behind Tom Stewart, Sam De Koning, Jack Henry, Jake Kolodjashnij and part-time defender Mark Blicavs.
In the ruck when Blicavs isn’t playing the ruck-rover role there are Rhys Stanley, John Ceglar and the emerging Toby Conway.
If Ratugolea has to wait until Tom Hawkins retires it might be 2025 until he gets a decent crack at it alongside Jeremy Cameron, Gary Rohan, Brad Close and co.
In any other situation Geelong would do what premiership sides or dominant teams have with frustrated depth players and allowed him to prosper elsewhere.
The likes of Jack Higgins, Dan Butler, Jed Anderson, and even Lincoln McCarthy have all been allowed to move on under the Neil Balme philosophy — if we can’t give you a game, we need to set you free.
The problem for Geelong is they know exactly what Port Adelaide do from watching Ratugolea’s VFL games as a defender against Sandringham and Box Hill.
He looked like he was born to play as an intercept defender.
He marked aggressively, he dropped into holes ahead of full forwards with fluid movement and timing, he used his 102kg frame to outbody his opponent at will.
He is exactly what the Power would like alongside Tom Jonas and Aliir Aliir.
But Geelong has absolutely no obligation to hand him on, especially when the market for back-up rucks or defenders like him is normally around pick 40-50.
It’s not a pick likely to convince Geelong to play ball.
Tom Hickey got to Sydney for 58 and 62 with a swap of second and third rounders, Toby Nankervis got to Richmond for pick 46, Nathan Vardy got to West Coast for pick 72, Gold Coast got Jarrod Witts for 46 and 62.
But in hindsight what was Paddy McCartin worth to Sydney this year when they instead stole him for nothing as a rookie?
Pick 30? Pick 25?
So a Port Adelaide side already needing to find another quality pick to satisfy North Melbourne on the Jason Horne-Francis mega-trade cannot simply hope Geelong relents.
They will need their No. 33 selection for the Willie Rioli trade, under an AFL ruling they cannot trade their future second-rounder because their future first-rounders is committed to Horne-Francis.
So it might be time for tough calls.
If they want Ratugolea they might have to relent on trading one of the first-team players they are so far ruling out, including Josh Sinn, Xavier Duursma or Miles Bergman.
Aliir Aliir and McCartin were game-changers when inserted into that intercept role at their current teams and the yet Geelong didn’t get where they are by gifting players to rivals without fair compensation.
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Originally published as AFL trades 2022: Mega-deal goes through involving Jason Horne-Francis, No.1 pick and Junior Rioli
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