It’s been a long time coming for Ben Jacobs and North Melbourne, but finally the former Port Adelaide player has become a Kangaroo and is proudly wearing royal blue and white colours.

While he’s elated at arriving at his club of choice, the 20-year old was upfront and honest about his respect for his former side.

“Port’s a great club and they’re heading in the right direction, I hadn’t lost faith in them or anything like that it was just a personal decision,” Jacobs told kangaroos.com.au.

“I played 26 games for the club and bonded with all the players. There’s a lot of Melbourne boys there too and we were all in the same boat. They put a lot of time and effort into me and taught me a lot about the game. It’s held me in good stead during those two-years and I really appreciate what they did for me.”

Used as a defender during his time at Alberton, Jacobs says the decision to leave didn’t come easy.

“I enjoyed my time at Port, made a lot of good friends, got really close to the coaching staff and the players, so to make that decision took a while and that’s why it was drawn out for so long because it wasn’t just one hundred per cent that I wanted to come home…it took a lot of thought but in the end this is what was best for me.

“It was something that was there during the year in the back of my mind. We struggled during the year and there was a lot of stuff going on, but later in the year when it came to decision time, as I said, it took so long because I wasn’t something I was just going to say, ‘yep, this is what I want to do’.

“I had a lot of things to weigh up and a lot of people to talk to about what decision I should make. It did weigh on my mind a lot…but that’s the decision I went with but by no means do I think Port’s a bad club, it’s a great club and they’re heading along the right path.”

When he finally decided, the hardest part was telling his team mates.

“As soon as I knew, I tried to ring as many as I could…some were overseas but I rang as many as possible. It showed the character of the guys that they understood. They were disappointed, but they understood. They were the ones I wanted to talk to first and also the coaches and I talked them through my decision and there were no hard feelings which was great.”

Jacobs grew up in Sandringham and lived with his mum, dad and younger brother until he was drafted by Port Adelaide in the 2010 National Draft with pick 16.
But the lure of returning home was just one factor.

“It was to a degree. I had a couple of years with injury and I had glandular fever as well and thought coming home was going to be the best for me and my football…to get healthy again and get my body on the park more regularly, that was probably the main reason but it was nice to get home as well.”

With his destination Victoria, the time came to look around at some potential clubs and one stood out in particular; North Melbourne. Jacobs explains why.

“The professionalism by far. Heading into the club, everything stood out and it kind of hit me like a big tidal wave. From the coaches to the boot studder…everyone was just on top of things and everyone was buying in to the one goal of where they wanted to the club to be.

“Although not knowing the coaches and players personally, I was able to get a really good idea of where they saw me fitting into the side and what they wanted to do with me...it was something that blew me away.

“I know North has come along way in only a few years because they’ve got four full-time physios and things like that which is just leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of other clubs and it just hit me. The decision was easy in the end…it was kind of a no brainer.

“I spoke to other clubs as well but as soon as I saw North, I was just blown away and it made my decision quite easy.”

Despite being North’s ‘trade target’, Jacobs knows he won't be an automatic selection come Round 1 next season.

“No way. We’ve got a lot of young players at ages in and around myself. You look at someone like Jack Ziebell who is only 21, but you can see he could be a captain in a few years because he plays like a 25 year old.

“They’re all around my age and playing regular senior footy so it’s definitely not going to be a walk up start for me at all and that was another thing that appeals to me at North. There are so many players in the same position and fighting for spots and they’re going to make me a better player.

“Any club that’s quality is a club that has players fighting for positions. That was definitely a big thing for me, to get to a club that I could actually improve at and the only way to improve is to compete again quality players and North has that.”

On a personal level, Jacobs is just hoping for the chance to have a full-on crack.

“I just want to get through unscathed and play as many games of football and hopefully cement a spot in the senior team. That’s my goal but if I can get through a pre-season, get these injuries right and fly through the year it’s a big tick on my list.

“I’m on a modified program but have definitely picked up the intensity and the workload in the last few days since being here in Utah. I’ll sit down and talk to the physios and see when they want me to start hitting my straps but I can see me not having a full January.

“I’m coming back from a few ankle operations so I haven’t done too much but getting out there with the boys for the first time’s exciting…”