How Jason Horne-Francis, Nick Daicos and other AFL rookies fared in the first week of preseason

A round of AFL practice games are in the books, and as ever it is fraught to read too much into them.

It was a weird few days of footy, with a handful of clubs rolling out more than 40 players, some games defying mathematics to feature six quarters of play, and there wasn't a recorded statistic in sight.

And while it is safe to surmise that teams like Melbourne, Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs are just as strong as we left them, it's a risky game to be putting a line through a team on the back of a scratchy.

What we can do though is give an assessment on how the new faces looked, the fresh draftees each club rolled out for their first looks at AFL-standard action.

It was good news for some, not so good news for others.

The number one draft pick stood out immediately even as North Melbourne were badly beaten by the reigning premiers Melbourne.

Horne-Francis seemed to spend a fair bit of time in the first half shadowing Clayton Oliver, gaining a crash course in how one of the best in the business operates at stoppages and around the ground.

But in the third quarter, Horne-Francis ran his own race and genuinely became the most dangerous player on the ground. Some of his disposal was a little nervy, but he powered around the ground winning his own footy and nailing tackles.

The question isn't if Horne-Francis will play Hawthorn in round one, but how the Hawks will try to stop him.

In his first game for Collingwood, Nick Daicos looked basically the exact same player that dominated underage footy in 2021.

He floated across the ground, bobbing up whenever the Pies needed him, and made creative and clever decisions every time he had the ball.

Daicos also hit the scoreboard — another feature of his junior career — linking up with brother