AFL Trades 2022: Jon Ralph on Jason Horne-Francis and the instability hurting North Melbourne

Jason Horne-Francis wants out of North Melbourne after one season. Jon Ralph lifts the lid on the moments and decisions that pushed the No.1 pick to seek a trade.

Alastair Clarkson was supposed to be the Messiah for North Melbourne and help attract and retain players at the club. Picture: Getty Images

Jason Horne-Francis is a different cat – emotional, impulsive, instinctive – and might have put in a trade request to return home no matter what happened in his first year at Arden Street.

He is especially close with his family, he has young siblings and his father Fabian Francis played at the same Port Adelaide that eventually lured him into putting in a trade request.

But it is possible to build a case that if there was a formula for forcing a homesick No.1 overall pick into a trade request, then the Roos ticked every box available.

At Collingwood, fellow 2021 selection Nick Daicos had a brother and teammate as a mentor, slotted into a friendly halfback role, played in a winning team with an exceptional culture-building coach and had leaders like Scott Pendlebury to lean on in a quiet moment.

Horne-Francis had almost none of those positive experiences.

The 18-year-old arrived at Arden St on a list stripped of valuable experience and was immediately slotted into the hardest position in football – mid-forward – in a team that never got the ball forward anyway.

The coach David Noble promoted early tough love – enough to have Horne-Francis on the verge of tears – at a club that seemed on the verge of imploding from early in the season.

Jason Horne-Francis didn’t have a positive experience in his first AFL season. Picture: Getty Images

If Horne-Francis wasn’t quite seen as the saviour, every single negative story was amplified into a circus, despite the club’s patient efforts to sort fact from fiction.

When he put contract talks on hold, it leaked in an instant. When he went home without the permission of the club, that, too, turned into a media frenzy, even if the club had gently told him only that he should have informed them about the unauthorised trip.

By the time they dropped him for having his compulsory ice bath 15 minutes later than the club had advised, his future was at flashpoint.

He believed they were being overzealous and finicky, some at the club believed he was deliberately rebelling against the coach and football department’s explicit attempts to set better standards.

Alastair Clarkson’s arrival seemed to have set him back on track, but now North Melbourne has absolutely no idea if the four-time premiership coach will survive the Hawthorn First Nations inquiry.

That instability and potential chaos played a part.

For Horne-Francis, who has not spoken often of his Indigenous heritage but proudly represents as such, the accusations against Clarkson from First Nations players must have created even more inner turmoil.

It is only 45 days since Clarkson’s appointment, since Essendon was described as a “basket case” for missing on the ex-Hawks coaching legend.

Make all the quips you like about president Sonja Hood saying she had no need for a plan B when she recruited Clarkson.

But suddenly the Roos are scrambling.

Clarkson’s position is uncertain and the Roos don’t have a CEO.

They will definitely trade Horne-Francis for the right price and Tarryn Thomas would potentially explore his future if it wasn’t for his big salary and the reality the Roos wouldn’t trade him.

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson’s immediate future is uncertain. Picture: Getty Images

St Kilda is keeping Brad Hill and Hunter Clark, and, while Griffin Logue could be a boom recruit, Darcy Tucker is a nice fringe mid who isn’t likely to be a game-changer.

Port Adelaide isn’t interested in trading first-choice players and they might not want to go to the Roos even if the Power would release them.

There is nothing worse in football than total uncertainty.

The Kangaroos are in limbo. Clarkson’s start date has been pushed back past November 1 indefinitely with no one in football quite prepared to say what he is or isn’t allowed to do.

Can he talk to players?

Can he set out the entire training program for others to fulfil?

The AFL says it is up to clubs to use common sense.

And, while Gillon McLachlan made clear his expectations for clubs to stand down their coaches, the league won’t put in place a definitive ruling about protocols for Fagan and Clarkson, given it was the individual clubs who announced they would take periods of leave.

No. 1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis listens to new North Melbourne coach Alistair Clarkson and president Sonja Hood as they faced the media in August. Picture: Michael Klein

North Melbourne’s position is still that Clarkson will not start on November 1 to allow him to work through the AFL’s process.

Given we are in the first week of October, with a two-month investigation not yet started, the Roos would have to believe they still won’t know about Clarkson’s position by Christmas.

Clarkson was to be the Messiah who attracted players, and instead his position – or lack thereof – has seen players move on.

The Roos are facing the prospect of being just as inexperienced next year as this season’s two-win performance.