North Melbourne champion David King has defended the club’s fans after their behaviour towards Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis was declared “disgraceful” by club great Kane Cornes.
Horne-Francis received more boos during Saturday night’s game at Adelaide Oval, helping the Power over the line against the Western Bulldogs after a big fourth quarter.
The young midfielder then received a strong defence from Power coach Ken Hinkley who said some critics have been “really unfair” and should be “embarrassed”. Cornes went a step further on Sunday.
Watch every match of every round of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
“The treatment from some of the North Melbourne supporters towards Horne-Francis has been disgraceful, and continues to be disgraceful. And they’ve got to have a look at themselves as well,” Cornes said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“He’s left the footy club now. The North Melbourne fans can let it go and focus on what is there now.
“And all the clips on social media that people keep clipping up to highlight some deficiencies in his game – it was a line in the sand moment, the club’s sick of it.”
‘Treat the kid with some respect!’ | 01:16
But on Sunday night, King leapt to the defence of Kangaroos supporters, blaming Cornes for starting the furore around Horne-Francis with the constant citing of ice baths.
Horne-Francis failed to complete a proper ice bath recovery last year while at North Melbourne which contributed to him being dropped for a game back home in Adelaide.
“What were the origins of this? You’ve got to cut to the chase. Kane Cornes put this on the radar with the rubbish about ice baths, that he was sacked from North Melbourne for not taking an ice bath,” King said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.
“And that flared the nostrils of the North Melbourne fans, and they’ve been going backwards and forth at each other for six months, and unfortunately Jason Horne-Francis has been the sole victim in all of this.
“It’s built a tension and a passion and a rage that wasn’t really there. I think the North Melbourne fans were happy to part, ‘alright, it doesn’t always work out for every player that gets drafted, he wants to go home, get the big deal’.
“We sat on (AFL) 360 last year and we said you know what if you want to go, go, we can work on getting the next person in the door and we’ll go again. No-one’s bigger than the footy club, you go again. But the rage was started the moment hashtag ice bath was put out there.
“So now when he does something, the fanbase goes beauty, we’ve got an angle. Now the Kangaroos fans weren’t there to boo on the weekend, so you can’t necessarily blame those people who I think have been targeted unfairly by those looking to make excuses.
“Jason Horne-Francis is going to be a star of the competition, we all know that. I don’t think it’d be as big a deal if the last six months of to-and-fro hadn’t taken place.”
