{"id":496003,"date":"2026-02-22T03:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496003\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T03:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:45:15","slug":"port-adelaide-power-wont-give-jaidyn-stephenson-a-list-spot-jason-horne-francis-in-doubt-for-north-melbourne-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/496003\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide Power won’t give Jaidyn Stephenson a list spot; Jason Horne-Francis in doubt for North Melbourne clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide<\/a> has opted not to give a list spot to Jaidyn Stephenson, after the former Collingwood<\/a> star spent the summer training with the team.<\/p>\n

The Power have three list openings they can fill via the supplemental selection period, but seemingly have others in mind.<\/p>\n

Stephenson, the 2018 Rising Star winner, retired at just 25 after losing his passion for the sport. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Audacious plan to cash in on Australia’s winter golden generation<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘A new standard’: Flagbearers for Australia’s greatest team unveiled<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Why Clarkson pips Voss as the coach most under-pressure in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jaidyn<\/p>\n

Jaidyn Stephenson training with Port Adelaide.\u00a0Port Adelaide<\/p>\n

But 18 months on, he attempted to make a comeback via the Power, who agreed to let him train with the club over summer. That quest has seemingly come to an end before it really began.<\/p>\n

Stephenson kicked 38 goals in his first season for the Magpies and looked like one of the best young talents in the game.<\/p>\n

His 2019 fell apart, however, after he was caught gambling on a Collingwood game and suspended for the rest of the home-and-away season.<\/p>\n

He was then traded to North Melbourne<\/a> a year later, where a drunken injury suffered riding a bicycle in his backyard would set him back once again.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old retired at the end of 2024 after playing 122 games, opting to play local footy in Victoria instead.<\/p>\n

Stephenson kicked two goals and four behinds in Port’s scratch match loss to Adelaide on Friday, but has still been overlooked for a list spot.<\/p>\n

Former Geelong midfielder Ted Clohesy, and state-league players Mitch Zadow and Balyn O’Brien remain with the Power, hoping to claim those openings. <\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/p>\n

Jason Horne-Francis of the Power.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide has also cleared star midfielder Jason Horne-Francis of a serious injury, after he hurt his foot during the practice match clash with the Crows.<\/p>\n

Horne-Francis has been battling the foot injury since the latter half of the 2025 season and clearly hasn’t got it right. <\/p>\n

The Power haven’t ruled him out for round one, though he would have to be in doubt for their clash with North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

If he plays, it will be Horne-Francis’ first game against the Kangaroos in Victoria since he sensationally requested a trade out of the club after just one year.<\/p>\n

The Roos picked the star midfielder as the No.1 pick in the 2021 draft, but he pushed his way back home to Adelaide after just 12 months.<\/p>\n

Since then, every game between the two clubs has either been in South Australia or Tasmania, with round one’s Marvel Stadium clash set to change that.<\/p>\n

It will be North fans’ first chance to say hello to Horne-Francis, assuming he gets through this foot injury.<\/p>\n

The Kangaroos were belted by Melbourne in their first pre-season hit-out on Friday, going down by 80 points and losing young defender Riley Hardeman to an ankle injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide has opted not to give a list spot to Jaidyn Stephenson, after the former Collingwood star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-496003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}