PORT ADELAIDE is not contemplating trading any players to North Melbourne as part of a trade for midfielder Jason Horne-Francis, instead preferring to use draft picks to get the deal done.

The 19-year-old has expressed his desire to be traded to Alberton, a year after being the first pick at the 2021 AFL National Draft.

Horne-Francis is a product of the Christies Beach and South Adelaide football clubs and trained with Port Adelaide in his draft year as part of the AFL Academy.

His step-father Fabian Francis played a total of 86 AFL and 33 SANFL games for Port Adelaide and after being part of the 1996 SANFL premiership side was named as part of the club’s inaugural AFL list.

Port Adelaide General Manager – Football, Chris Davies says list manager Jason Cripps will remain open minded about completing a fair trade for all parties during the Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.

“Things really progressed over the last 72 hours or so but probably over the last week we started contemplating whether this would be a deal that both Jason (Horne-Francis) and North Melbourne would be willing to do,” Davies said on Trade Radio.

“It’s been 72 hours that things have certainly progressed. We thought over the last week there was a chance and we’ve ended up in the position we are in today. I’m sure Jason Cripps and Brady Rawlings from North Melbourne will work through a deal over the next period of time.

“I certainly don’t want to leave this conversation without acknowledging Jason is a really good player and ultimately the club will be willing to work with North Melbourne to find the right trade and right outcome for both parties.”

Port Adelaide currently holds picks 8, 27, 53 and 56 at next month’s draft and is also hoping to complete a deal to bring West Coast forward Junior Rioli to the club.

That has some commentators suggesting players may need to be involved in the deal to land Horne-Francis with young Victorian talents Zak Butters, Miles Bergman, Xavier Duursma and Josh Sinn mentioned.

However, Davies was quick to shut down talk that those players would be involved in the trade.

“Not one of those players has suggested that they want to leave Port Adelaide, nor have we contemplated those guys leaving Port Adelaide so I know there’s been a number of names that’s been suggested around the place – generally it’s Victorians who you might consider might want to come back to Victoria,” he explained.

“We want to leave the trade and draft period with a better list than what we’ve got so right now we’re certainly not thinking about ay players leaving our club and certainly not any of those you’ve listed there, all of whom have contracts with the club, who have suggested they want to stay and most of whom have been regulars in our AFL team.

“Right now, we’d be suggesting we want to add Jason to our existing group of players so it’s not something we’ve contemplated. We don’t want to bring Jason in and let other players who we think are going to be helpful for us at AFL level go but I’m sure that North Melbourne will have a think about that and if a time comes, we’d have to deal with it.

“Right now, our preference would be to deal from a draft selection perspective but you never say never through this period do you. You’ve got to keep your eyes open to all the possibilities and that’s one thing that our guys do really well.”

On Rioli, Davies was confident he would be a Port Adelaide player in 2023, having requested a trade after 51 games including the 2018 Premiership with the Eagles.

“Both clubs are committed to making a deal happen there,” Port’s football boss said. “With Junior suggesting he wanted to come to our club a couple of weeks ago.

“I know our guys and Rohan O’Brien at West Coast have been working on that over the last period of time so we’ll get to an outcome there that’s fair to both parties over the next week or so, understanding as well that we're in the market for a number of players so we're going to have to work out a way to rationalise our selections so that we can get that done.”

Port has been linked to several players in the off-season and Davies has previously promised the club would be aggressive in its desire to improve its list during the trade and draft period.

One of those players was Richmond midfielder Jack Graham, who toured Alberton last week.

The South Australian has opted to remain at Punt Road, and Davies said in part it came down to the club prioritising the Horne-Francis deal.

“Things ended with Jack in an amicable fashion,” Davies said. “From his perspective, he toured the facility, and he probably in the end made a decision to stay where he is at Richmond. We go through that process a number of times during the trade period and they ultimately don’t all end up at choosing your club and that’s fine but you’ve got to be in it to win it and that’s part of what we want to be doing.

“We’re not shy to have the right conversations with players. Some of them work and some of them don’t.

“Ultimately it was the right decision for (Jack) and it was the right decision for us because we needed to prioritise Jason Horne-Francis coming to our club.”

The Continental Tyres Trade Period will run until 7pm ACDT on Wednesday 12^th of October.