Player Watch JHF - Jason Horne-Francis

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I can give you a reason, loyalty. that was easy.

Why would he have any loyalty to North? He was the undisputed #1 pick and 18 clubs wanted him. North were just lucky enough to be shit at the right time to get him.

You can make some arguments around loyalty for players who might’ve genuinely been “given” a chance late in the draft, or through their career circumstances, but a young high draft pick? He doesn’t owe the club anything. They haven’t done him a favour.
 

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LMAO with those comparing JHF to Buckley.

Buckley was one of the greatest players to ever lace a boot, and the one season he did player in Brisbane he won the rising star and came 2nd in the BnF.

JHF was dropped and looked like a 3rd round draft pick. Buckley also was one of the most determined players of all time.

Lot to live up to Jason.
 
I wonder how often clubs are honest with players they are about to draft.

"Look we know you want to play in X state, but we just can't pass up a player of your talent with pick Y, so we're just going to need you to step up for a year or two and we'll get you traded back to a club with maximum value so there are winners all round. If you come to us and look like you'd rather be anywhere else you aren't going to attract much attention come trade week. If you have a ripping couple of years you'll have clubs lining up at your door and you'll have your pick of the bunch."

Something along those lines... or do clubs just weigh up the flight risk, select them on the basis that the risk is worth it (which is a totally legitimate decision to make) but then not have those sorts of tough conversations with the player and naively think they can just turn their mindset around?

Obviously, some players learn to love a place. Will Schofield just wrote an article about the exact same thing happening to him. Now, he isn't near as talented as JHF so doesn't hold close to as much leverage over a club and he also got drafted to the reigning premiers, which is an ideal situation for a middle to late draft pick. So the parallels aren't exactly the same, but a teenager moving to a whole new city with trepidation only to find out they actually love it is a very common path to tread in life.

A week before the 2006 AFL draft, I called my manager in tears.

I didn’t want to leave my friends and family in Geelong. I told my manager, Nigel Carmody, to ring all interested interstate clubs and tell them not to draft me. That I wouldn’t be coming if they did.

I was 17 years old and moving interstate seemed like the biggest deal in the world. I was close to my family and had an extremely tight-knit group of friends. How could I possibly move away from them and live a happy life in another state?

Fourteen years later, I retired a one-club player with West Coast, with a West Australian wife and two children. I’m still close with my family and that old group of friends are still my best mates.

The point is that when you’re younger, things seem like a bigger deal than they actually are. You don’t yet have the coping mechanisms to best handle hard times or adversity. Over time, you can grow and become stronger and learn how to work through situations that may not at first seem to be in your favour.
 
Most years the #1 draft pick goes to a club that could be described as a "basket case". That's why we have a draft.

Most no 1s don't go to clubs who win 2 games, have a % of 55, sack their third coach in 3 years and then have the new coach having to delay their start while being investigated for matters that would have a personal element for the player (i.e his step father and half-sister is indigenous, and he grew up in a non-traditional family). Sam Walsh's first year was 7/15 84.5%. Matt Rowell walked into 5-11-1 90.6%. Riley Thiltorpe walked into 7-15 82%. North's financial viability has been secured largely through an arrangement that no longer exists and it gets 20k crowds to home games unless there is another Victorian team to fill the stadium.

The flogs on this board have no idea. Whenever its GWS or GC getting pilfered, the response is 'you can't blame them, who would want to play for a team like that'. North are the worst team there has been for a while. They have been bad for a number of years and they will be bad for the foreseeable future. North Melbourne are literally trying to poach a in contract young top 10 pick in Hunter Clark right now. Multiple players in their 2nd and 3rd years have asked for trades this year, and it happens frequently. So the question is - what is so bad about JHF? Is it about honoring contracts because North are trying to get someone to break one as we speak. Collingwood are trying to break one. GC just broke one. Is it leaving after the first year? I don't really see the difference between leaving after your first or 2nd year. The only reason why first year players rarely do it is because it is almost impossible to land a high draft pick in contract. JHF have done North a Favour by going a year early and maximizing their return. Maybe he tried less to settle in compared to those that hung around for 2 years, but he tried more than Archie Perkins and Bailey Smith. Perfectly fine for those guys to go a few picks later than they should have to middling Victorian clubs because they sooked it up. It was something that was mentioned for about 24 hours in the media and everyone moved on. Perfectly fine for Alex Keath to have his arm twisted to get a rookie spot, developed, and then leave at the first opportunity. Perfectly fine for Dangerfield to enter the draft and then refuse to come in his first year.

The consistent theme in all of this is if you're Victorian and you want to go home, it's fine. If you're leaving a Victorian club, you're a c8nt.
 
It's shit form but who can blame the kid for going back to his home state after being drafted by an absolute basket case and have been in a poo storm all year, with no real upside moving forward.

Have heard people allude to a lot of other stories about JHF and team mates not liking him... Any one know what's happened?
 

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Most years the #1 draft pick goes to a club that could be described as a "basket case". That's why we have a draft.

Most no 1s don't go to clubs who win 2 games, have a % of 55, sack their third coach in 3 years and then have the new coach having to delay their start while being investigated for matters that would have a personal element for the player (i.e his step father and half-sister is indigenous, and he grew up in a non-traditional family). Sam Walsh's first year was 7/15 84.5%. Matt Rowell walked into 5-11-1 90.6%. Riley Thiltorpe walked into 7-15 82%. North's financial viability has been secured largely through an arrangement that no longer exists and it gets 20k crowds to home games unless there is another Victorian team to fill the stadium.

The flogs on this board have no idea. Whenever its GWS or GC getting pilfered, the response is 'you can't blame them, who would want to play for a team like that'. North are the worst team there has been for a while. They have been bad for a number of years and they will be bad for the foreseeable future. North Melbourne are literally trying to poach a in contract young top 10 pick in Hunter Clark right now. Multiple players in their 2nd and 3rd years have asked for trades this year, and it happens frequently. So the question is - what is so bad about JHF? Is it about honoring contracts because North are trying to get someone to break one as we speak. Collingwood are trying to break one. GC just broke one. Is it leaving after the first year? I don't really see the difference between leaving after your first or 2nd year. The only reason why first year players rarely do it is because it is almost impossible to land a high draft pick in contract. JHF have done North a Favour by going a year early and maximizing their return. Maybe he tried less to settle in compared to those that hung around for 2 years, but he tried more than Archie Perkins and Bailey Smith. Perfectly fine for those guys to go a few picks later than they should have to middling Victorian clubs because they sooked it up. It was something that was mentioned for about 24 hours in the media and everyone moved on. Perfectly fine for Alex Keath to have his arm twisted to get a rookie spot, developed, and then leave at the first opportunity. Perfectly fine for Dangerfield to enter the draft and then refuse to come in his first year.

The consistent theme in all of this is if you're Victorian and you want to go home, it's fine. If you're leaving a Victorian club, you're a c8nt.

happy for PrisonBars4life 's quote to constitute my response Upstart Swan
 
he is contracted. honour the contract.

This is an argument I can acknowledge more than any faux loyalty bullsh*t.

North could have held JHF to his contract, sure.

But once it became obvious the player wanted out they were smart enough to recognise that it was better to deal him now than to hold on and watch him walk for nothing next year.

Players have been straining at the constraints of contracts more and more boldly in recent years. Geelong and Tim Kelly maybe the only case I can think in recent times where a player was held to their signature. There's probably others.
 

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Player Watch JHF - Jason Horne-Francis

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