Port Adelaide forward Jack Watts admits the biggest fight to be AFL elite is with himself
The most encouraging sign that Jack Watts might finally win his much publicised, career long fight to become a consistent elite footballer is the admission by Watts himself that the biggest part of his fight is with himself.
The race is long, and in the end it’s only with yourself” - Baz Luhrmann.
The most encouraging sign that Jack Watts might finally win his much publicised, career long fight to become a consistent elite footballer, is the admission by Watts himself after last week’s 17 possession and two goal performance, that the biggest part of his fight is with himself.
“The couple of weeks before I was dropped, I wasn’t doing much to be honest, I was just floating around and not getting a kick” Watts said in an honest self-assessment, adding “When I go through patches of games in the past and I’m just out of the game for so long; it’s hard to get back into the game”.
Watts knows the cure to his own disease, “It’s probably just constantly telling myself to get involved, just get involved and and get around the ball and get into a contest because when I’m in a contest it usually works out alright” was Watts’ self diagnosis.
But he was quick to point out that the fix is not as simple as it sounds. “Backing yourself in, being aggressive at the contest, and go at the ball; it sounds pretty simple and people at home probably think how can you not do that all of the time. But you can get caught up sort of trying to do too much and trying to play your role” Watts said, in a confession that he is as frustrated as the fans are, with his inability to play well every week.
But even more revealing was Watts admission that the playing environment during his nine seasons at Melbourne, was mentally restrictive and nowhere near as inspiring as it is at Port Adelaide, so his perennial battle to stay focused and motivated to perform should now be easier for him to win.
“Certainly for me it’s different. If I’m being honest, I’ve had a lot of years where we’re already planning our Bali trips, and we’re one and twelve, or we’re two and fourteen” Watts said of his time at Melbourne adding “So it’s just that that motivation is there now (to play finals and challenge for a premiership at Port). And it’s tight for spots so I’ve obviously played in the SANFL the past two weeks and there’s that motivation to go out every day at training and give it everything you’ve got, and you are competing when you are doing match play at training, and you are giving it everything because you want to beat the guy you are playing on because you want to play. And that’s a different sort of atmosphere to what I’ve been in, in the past” Watt’s said in a startlingly revealing post game interview for Fox Footy that did not make it to air in Australia.
When asked by Nick DalSanto how much he was enjoying his football and the prospect of playing in September, Watts smiled and said “I don’t know what to do because I’ve been no-where near this spot for my ten-year career, so it’s funny sort of thinking that possibly, when the (home and away) season’s finished, there’s still more footy to play”.
In theory it should be an easily achieved non-negotiable for an AFL footballer to have a constantly high in-game effort level. But as the “Run and Chase” message written on Tiger star Daniel Rioli’s wrist tape indicates, motivation and effort can be a bigger mental battle for some, than the physical battle.
Watts spent nine seasons playing for a team with no premiership hope, modest goals, and a relatively unfulfilling self-survival bred version of happiness and success. And Watts motivation and progress was obviously capped by it.
But suddenly now, Watts has a chance to do what the great players do. Leave the also-rans on the shore and sail past the horizon. And most importantly, the former number one draft pick who Melbourne’s recruiters told us was the best young footballer in the country back in 2008, can finally find out for himself more than anyone, how good he really is.