Player Watch Jason Horne-Francis - You were always one of us

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This guy is on another level. A long way to go but has the potential to be our greatest ever AFL player. He's just that good.
 
Friendly reminder: The price we paid for Horne-Francis (a top ten and late first round pick) is the same price Adelaide paid for Bryce Gibbs and Essendon paid for Dylan Shiel.

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themongrelpunt.com

Gather Round - Port Adelaide v Essendon - The Big Statements - The Mongrel Punt

The Port Adelaide midfield flexed some muscle after quarter time, leaving the Bombers in their dust. HB has the Big Statements from the game
themongrelpunt.com themongrelpunt.com

THE DIFFERENCE 12 MONTHS CAN MAKE

There are a couple of points I wanted to touch on when it came to the game of Jason Horne-Francis.

Last season, he gave away the most free kicks in the league. This was largely due to attempting to break every tackle that was laid on him, and often coming up short. JHF is a bull, but he is a young bull. Amazingly, using the power of mathematics, I am able to deduce that he was even younger this time last year!

And when you’re a 19-year-old kid trying to shrug off the tackles of seasoned AFL footballers, chances are it’s not going to end well for you.

And it didn’t, with Horne-Francis thrashing around whilst being tackled, and being pinged for holding the ball when he couldn’t break through.

But this season, things have started a little differently. Not only is he smashing through tackles that may have held him up last season, he is changing direction and taking off, leaving those opponents standing there wondering what the hell went wrong with their tackling techniques.

Watching him crash and bash through packs, win the footy, and take off was a genuine highlight of this game, and something the Power missed last week. As good as Ollie Wines is (and he is not the player he was a few years ago), Jason Horne-Francis adds something to this Port team that Ollie doesn’t. JHF adds absolute mongrel.

He will fight, throw himself sideways, and swing his body around to ride out a tackle and continue on his merry way with the footy under his wing.

He finished this game with a game-high ten clearances. This included seven centre bounce clearances, as he had his way with an Essendon midfield who were just a step slower, and a step below the level of the Port Adelaide on-ballers.

The other aspect of his game that I loved was the way he was able to release players in better position, often resulting in forward forays with meaning.

In Thursday night’s game, I was critical of the role Matt Crouch played. He gets his hands on the footy, but his instinct to go backwards and sideways often impeded the progress of his team. Horne-Franics is the opposite. He extracts the footy and delivers it to players in a position to go forward with it.

At one point in the third, he won a centre clearance, worked the footy out to the far side of the centre, and gave off to a running and open Zak Butters after distancing himself from his direct opponent, and drawing Butters’ opponent to him. It gave Butters a clear lane to dart forward.

Had that been Matt Crouch, he would have given the footy to Butters way before and the Bombers would have hemmed him into the back of the centre square. As Jeremy Finlayson kicked the goal to cap the play off, I imagined where the Crows would be in the same position – stuck, chipping the ball around half-back and wing, wasting an opportunity.

It’s what separates a meaningful stoppage player like JHF from blokes who do little with the footy, like Crouch, or in this case, Darcy Parish.

Whack, huh?

Tell me I’m wrong.
 

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An intriguing moment i saw with JHF was when Gresham kicked his 3rd by slipping his tackle/JHF over committed. Jason hung his head in shame and slapped the turf frustrated while on his knees. We were 43 points up. The very next play was exactly what schulzenfest posted in drawing Butters’ opponent that led to Finlaysons goal. Wind the clock back maybe a year or two and he would of been so frustrated he probably would of given away a head high free kick. Instead he calmy went back to the centre and won the clearence with no fuss at all.

Maturity
 
Not sure if covered in the gameday thread but I prefer him in long socks.

However, if he plays like that with the shorter ones play on.
 
Schulzenfest said:
themongrelpunt.com

Gather Round - Port Adelaide v Essendon - The Big Statements - The Mongrel Punt

The Port Adelaide midfield flexed some muscle after quarter time, leaving the Bombers in their dust. HB has the Big Statements from the game
themongrelpunt.com themongrelpunt.com

THE DIFFERENCE 12 MONTHS CAN MAKE

There are a couple of points I wanted to touch on when it came to the game of Jason Horne-Francis.

Last season, he gave away the most free kicks in the league. This was largely due to attempting to break every tackle that was laid on him, and often coming up short. JHF is a bull, but he is a young bull. Amazingly, using the power of mathematics, I am able to deduce that he was even younger this time last year!

And when you’re a 19-year-old kid trying to shrug off the tackles of seasoned AFL footballers, chances are it’s not going to end well for you.

And it didn’t, with Horne-Francis thrashing around whilst being tackled, and being pinged for holding the ball when he couldn’t break through.

But this season, things have started a little differently. Not only is he smashing through tackles that may have held him up last season, he is changing direction and taking off, leaving those opponents standing there wondering what the hell went wrong with their tackling techniques.

Watching him crash and bash through packs, win the footy, and take off was a genuine highlight of this game, and something the Power missed last week. As good as Ollie Wines is (and he is not the player he was a few years ago), Jason Horne-Francis adds something to this Port team that Ollie doesn’t. JHF adds absolute mongrel.

He will fight, throw himself sideways, and swing his body around to ride out a tackle and continue on his merry way with the footy under his wing.

He finished this game with a game-high ten clearances. This included seven centre bounce clearances, as he had his way with an Essendon midfield who were just a step slower, and a step below the level of the Port Adelaide on-ballers.

The other aspect of his game that I loved was the way he was able to release players in better position, often resulting in forward forays with meaning.

In Thursday night’s game, I was critical of the role Matt Crouch played. He gets his hands on the footy, but his instinct to go backwards and sideways often impeded the progress of his team. Horne-Franics is the opposite. He extracts the footy and delivers it to players in a position to go forward with it.

At one point in the third, he won a centre clearance, worked the footy out to the far side of the centre, and gave off to a running and open Zak Butters after distancing himself from his direct opponent, and drawing Butters’ opponent to him. It gave Butters a clear lane to dart forward.

Had that been Matt Crouch, he would have given the footy to Butters way before and the Bombers would have hemmed him into the back of the centre square. As Jeremy Finlayson kicked the goal to cap the play off, I imagined where the Crows would be in the same position – stuck, chipping the ball around half-back and wing, wasting an opportunity.

It’s what separates a meaningful stoppage player like JHF from blokes who do little with the footy, like Crouch, or in this case, Darcy Parish.

Whack, huh?

Tell me I’m wrong.
Click to expand...
JFH is bigger that Rozee & Butters; last year the Hornet had operations of back of both legs.
Therefore, this year is his first free pre-season with us where he can only get better and betterish !!!!
 
I can’t help to think that last year, he just wasn’t that fit for AFL footy, after off season surgeries, and just being young.

This year a full pre season under his belt, has allowed him to get from contest to contest.

Still so much fitness and match experience growth to go. Absolute gun.
 
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