By Marc McGowan
There was genuine debate three years ago about whether Jason Horne-Francis or Nick Daicos was the superior player in the 2021 AFL draft.
This could incense Magpies fans, but we might soon enter that territory again after Horne-Francis’ latest show-stopping performance propelled flag contenders Port Adelaide to a crucial road win over Melbourne at the MCG.
Jason Horne-Francis and Nick Daicos have stamped their class on the AFL in their first three years.Credit: Stephen Kiprillis
Barely a month before their draft, I flicked text messages around to list managers and recruiters at 16 of the 18 clubs to conduct an anonymous survey centred on the two young stars.
North Melbourne had the top pick, while Collingwood held Daicos’ father-son rights, so they were both excluded for obvious reasons.
There were two questions: “Who is the best player in this year’s draft?” and “Would you select Jason Horne-Francis at No.1 if you were North Melbourne, or place a bid on Nick Daicos?”
Six voted for Horne-Francis – whom recruiters likened to Patrick Dangerfield because of his power and burst from stoppages – as the best, three gave Daicos the nod, while two others could not split them and said the call would depend on team needs. The remaining five chose not to participate.
Only three said they would place a bid on Daicos, one of whom was OK with it after seeing Adelaide bid on the Western Bulldogs’ Next Generation Academy hotshot Jamarra Ugle-Hagan at No.1 a year earlier.
Everything is easy with hindsight, but Daicos put a significant gap between him and Horne-Francis in the two seasons that followed, in an extraordinary start to his career. Drama overshadowed Horne-Francis’ contributions, before he requested a trade to the Power at the end of his debut season.
Horne-Francis built momentum last year, but is now a bona fide rising star and difference-maker.
Daicos undoubtedly still has the edge and is a Brownlow Medal contender for a second year running, yet there is significant excitement about what Horne-Francis already is and what he can become.
Jason Horne-Francis was one of Port Adelaide’s best players against Melbourne.Credit: AFL Photos
With the match on the line, Horne-Francis and dual All-Australian Connor Rozee both won 10 disposals in the final term to will Port Adelaide to a two-point victory that moved them to second spot.
Rozee is three years older and an established star of the game, while Horne-Francis is tracking the same way. He is tough, physical, competitive, and has just the right amount of mongrel.
Against the Demons, there were a terrific contested mark over Jake Lever, a physical and verbal tussle with Harry Petty, a passage where he brushed off and effectively bullied Marty Hore to win possession, an excellent set-snap finish on his non-preferred left foot, lots of hard running, some bounces, and a series of other telling marks.
Horne-Francis’ kicking could be better, but that was always the case with Dangerfield, too.
The final haul included 28 disposals (25 kicks), 13 marks, 11 contested possessions, two goals and five inside 50s. Just wait to see what happens once he receives more than six centre-bounce attendances.
The right answer three years on from the 2021 draft is you could not go wrong either way.
Brown-and-gold fever
Calsher Dear kicked three goals in the Hawks’ win over Carlton.Credit: AFL Photos
It has taken almost everyone too long to take Hawthorn seriously in 2024.
People are struggling to understand how the Hawks have risen so quickly after being a bottom-three side last year and beginning this season with five losses in a row and six in the first seven games.
They wonder how players such as Massimo D’Ambrosio, Lloyd Meek, Sam Frost, Conor Nash, Mabior Chol, Connor Macdonald and Calsher Dear are performing such big roles in Hawthorn’s success – and how a near-33-year-old Jack Gunston is suddenly a threat again.
And how are they kicking a winning score without Mitch Lewis, or stopping rival teams with a patchwork defence lacking star power beyond an undersized James Sicily? Even super-veteran Luke Breust conceded to this masthead after Sunday’s 74-point thrashing of Carlton that he struggles to explain the rapid turnaround to friends and family who ask.
It’s lucky for the Hawks that reputations, particularly outdated ones or based on incorrect perceptions, matter zilch when it comes to winning.
Sam Mitchell sings the Hawks song with his team on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
Sam Mitchell’s team has won 11 of its past 14 games, beating the likes of Brisbane, GWS Giants, Fremantle, Western Bulldogs and now Carlton. They tackled the Blues relentlessly, ferociously and in numbers, blitzed them with daring overlap running, and shared the load magnificently.
Mitchell is already a master at saying very little in his media conferences, but whatever he is telling his players is clearly working.
They face Richmond and North Melbourne in the final fortnight of the home-and-away season, having already left those clubs in the dust with a stunning revival that is only just starting.
Here come the Giants
Another bonkers round left even less certainty about what we can expect in September.
Darcy Jones and the Giants are on a roll.Credit: Getty Images
It is wholly possible that many tipsters correctly predicted only one or two games on a weekend when four matches were decided by four points or fewer, then two others by 11 and 18.
There were at least six upsets, while many also would have backed Collingwood to topple a horribly out-of-sorts Sydney, who needed to rally from a 27-point deficit in the last quarter to win by three. Melbourne had a case against Port Adelaide at the MCG, too.
Greater Western Sydney’s stunning victory over the red-hot Lions at the Gabba was a definite boilover, a week after they barely beat Hawthorn and the Demons the previous two weeks.
Brisbane had won nine games on the trot, but that is over, and the Giants are now on a six-match streak – but had to recover from an extraordinary first-quarter beatdown, after which they trailed 4.7 (31) to a solitary behind.
The Lions’ errant goalkicking saved them in a term where the Giants trailed badly in disposals (64-106), inside 50s (4-19), clearances (4-13), contested possessions (15-40), marks (15-35) and marks inside 50 (0-6).
This might be the year for GWS to create club history with their maiden premiership. As usual, they have a smorgasbord of top-liners but also unheralded gems who lift their weight. Among the latter on Saturday were James Peatling and Darcy Jones.
Peatling was enormous in the middle two quarters, in particular, while 175-centimetre speedster Jones broke Brisbane hearts with two brilliant goals in as many minutes to snap a 64-64 deadlock in the fourth term.
Aaron Cadman shows the Sherrin to his Lions opponents.Credit: AFL Photos
No.1 pick Aaron Cadman kicked three goals, too, as his development continues alongside Jesse Hogan.
Second-year coach Adam Kingsley has instilled a sustainable game plan and belief in his group, while football boss Jason McCartney and recruiting manager Adrian Caruso deserve more plaudits for the way they continually replenish the list.
Ted Lasso no more?
There was an aura about Craig McRae the past two seasons as Collingwood became close-game gods and stormed to last year’s premiership.
Craig McRae’s Magpies have battled in their premiership defence.Credit: AFL Photos
McRae’s genial ways and seemingly never-ending positivity even drew comparisons to fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso, from the popular Apple TV series of the same name.
This year has been a far different story for the Magpies, who have not reached the same heights for various reasons and will almost certainly miss finals. McRae, it seems, is also finding life a bit more difficult in his third season in charge.
He apologised after Caroline Wilson called him out for not giving St Kilda enough credit in the aftermath of the Saints’ round two triumph over Collingwood.
McRae then declared his side was “right on the edge of being losers”, and undoing the winning culture they had established, after the round 19 shellacking they copped from Hawthorn.
He also raised eyebrows across the competition when he complained on Friday night about umpires not awarding Dan McStay a 50-metre penalty against Sydney’s Tom McCartin, who ran a few steps over the mark, in the last minute of the Pies’ narrow defeat.
“I reckon if it was at the MCG, it would have been paid. There’s definitely an advantage for the home ground [team],” said McRae, who also described the number of insufficient-intent free kicks as “a bit of a circus”.
Collingwood will play 14 games at the MCG this season, and another three at Marvel Stadium, so rival clubs’ bemusement is understandable.
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