Jason Horne-Francis will play his 100th AFL game this Saturday afternoon, in his fifth year in the league, and his fourth at Port Adelaide. 

The 23-year-old is somewhat used to the spotlight, from being pick one in the 2021 national draft, to a highly public move to Alberton after one year at Arden Street. 

Now, in a breakout year on-field, the midfield star and aspiring leader spoke on how much the milestone means to him, how he’s stepped up this season, and how he’s improved his mental resilience over the last 99 games. 

Horne-Francis on 100 AFL games 
“I’m extremely grateful to be able to make my way to 100 games. And there's been a lot of ups and downs, with the injuries, and obviously the move in the first year and that kind of thing. But I’m just very grateful to be able to get to 100, and hopefully I can keep it going for a lot longer.” 

Horne-Francis on the desire to follow in Travis Boak’s footsteps 
“Yeah, 300 would be good. Hopefully, we can strive for that definitely. But I don't know if I'll be catching Trav. Like I said, it's a big achievement for me, and I'm very proud of it. I’m happy to be able to have so many people around me that supported me through, and got me to 100 games. I'm very grateful for it.” 

Horne-Francis on how he has changed over the journey 
“Oh, there's been a lot really. I probably came in as an 18-year-old and thought that it was just going to happen in a sense, and I was going to play good footy straight away. And it's kind of the opposite of that. You go through a lot of ups and downs, and it was definitely harder than what I thought. I've learnt that it's a lot about the mental side of the game to be able to get yourself up every week and play good footy, and there's so many resources around the club that you need to talk to and use, and lean on and bounce off, and that's what I've learned, I reckon. And the footy just comes off the back of all of those things.” 

Horne-Francis on improving the mental side of the game 
“I think just trying to talk to as many people as I can, whether that's a psych, whether that's the coaches at the club or the players or the leaders, and just trying to chat and speak my mind a little bit and say how say how you're feeling. That's usually the best thing for people if you can relate to people and know how they're feeling and what they're going through in game. We’ve started to do that with Dewy a bit in our line meetings…it's the best form of relationship, knowing what others are going through during the game and that's what I've learned. 

“(Early in my career), I probably just brushed that that side of it aside a little bit and thought that if I can prepare game day and train during the week that I’d be alright, and go out and hopefully play good. And you soon learn that your prep starts on the Monday, and it goes all the way through to whenever you play. That's definitely the biggest thing that I've learned throughout this whole this whole journey, I think.” 

Horne-Francis on having a limited pre-season this year 
“Yeah, extremely happy (with how I’ve performed after a limited pre-season). I think earlier there was definitely a bit of doubt and wanting to just get through games early and get some run into my legs. But yeah, I think I just found other ways to keep myself fit when I wasn't running and get on top of my diet and sleep and all that kind of stuff. And I think I've just knuckled down on that a little bit, and then my performance can come off the back of that and if I can keep doing that consistently…that's the main thing is consistency. And I think I've learned how to yeah be a consistent pro and it’s working nicely.” 

Horne-Francis on injuries this year 
“Yeah, it's hard. It's deflating in a sense when we probably got to a point in the year where we were getting a lot of boys back. Pep was about to come back and all those boys, and then we kind of got hit with another wave of injury. We’ve built that next man up mentality around the footy club, and it's more of a system base now, and it's all about our roles. And if we can get younger boys or even older boys coming in executing their role, we're going to perform most weeks. And I think we've done that throughout most parts of the year. There's definitely been ups and downs throughout the year, but for the most part, I feel like we've been pretty good in coming in and executing our role.” 

Horne-Francis on stepping up as a leader 
“Even just being introduced to (leadership meetings) and getting in there with all the leaders and what we speak about and how we want to run the footy club and be leaders for the younger boys, it was definitely a little turning point in the year (for me). And I've loved taking on the leadership role. It's probably put a little bit more pressure on me, but I've got ways to deal with that now, and I feel like it's good pressure. I want to be a leader of the footy club and lead the club and get young boys looking up to me. And it's probably just given me a little bit more accountability that I've taken on board, and I've really loved it. 

“I didn't speak in my first leadership meeting, and then the second one I had to speak up a little bit. It's been great going in there and I feel like I can speak my voice in there a little bit more. It’s not like we have a lot of old leaders in there, we're all kind of young, and we're encouraged to speak our mind in there and say what we think, and I think that's the best part about it. It's not run by the coaches, and it's more run by us players, and that's what we've been doing throughout the whole year. With any of our meetings, we want it to be player led, and I think we're doing that pretty well, whether in the leadership meeting or in normal meetings as well.” 

Horne-Francis on the impact of his family since moving home 
“Yeah, they have (helped me) a lot. I've probably learned not to lean on them as much. Probably sounds a bit weird coming back to Adelaide and being around them more, but I definitely had my year or so where I got around them a lot and then eased away from them a little bit. But I'm still very close with them and talk to them all the time. I’ve probably just learned not to lean on mum and dad as much, and gain a bit more independence, which has been good. I get back and see them all the time, but they've been a huge part with their support. They're always down every game, and that means a lot to me. They’re making the trip over to Sydney this week, so it should be good.” 

Horne-Francis on blocking out the haters 
“It’s kind of dimmed down a little bit. I still get the old ice bath comments every now and then, which makes me giggle a little bit sometimes. But I think I've just found ways to be able to deal with that and move forward a little bit, and especially in game, it's eased out a little bit now. But I'm more worried about my role and taking the club forward and being a leader. And I can't get distracted by too many of those things that happen out on the field or anywhere I go.” 

Horne-Francis on the upcoming off-season  
“I’m still very focused on this season. But when it comes to it, there should be a good crew staying down here in Adelaide. So we'll be able to get together a lot and be able to do a lot of training, and we'll have a few of our high performance staff that will stay over here as well, and that'll be good. As much as you can get in a group and be with other players, and keep that camaraderie going and keep pushing each other. That's what we'll be aiming to do, especially for us boys in SA. And there'll be groups around everywhere. We're really excited. We're excited just to try build into the last couple of games towards next season, and hopefully we can put in a really good pre-season. I'm looking forward to my first pre-season in a while, to be honest.”