Jack Watts has lost the faith of coach Simon Goodwin and it could be career ending
MELBOURNE wants to trade Jack Watts eight years after taking him at No.1 in the draft. A Mark Robinson column in August nominated the moment he passed the point of no return.
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MELBOURNE wants to trade Jack Watts eight years after taking him at No.1 in the draft. A Mark Robinson column in August nominated the moment he passed the point of no return.
CAN’T help but think it’s the start of the end for Jack Watts.
In what is an elimination final for Melbourne against St Kilda, where coach Simon Goodwin needs to count on the worth of every player in every single contest, he dumped Watts from the senior team.
It is a major statement from the coach.
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He’s lost faith - certainly temporary and perhaps long-term - in a player who has teased plenty, delivered occasionally and been unresponsive too many times in a career which is now in its ninth season and is at 152 games.
Watts shouldn’t be out of the team. He should be commanding a forward line without Jesse Hogan. He should be a presence, a leader, a player wanting to be at the forefront as his club battles to play in its first finals series since 2006. They are wasted words with Jack.
It’s frustrating for the coach, his teammates and Demons fans because he had his best season in 2016 and was rewarded with a three-year contract.
He started this season in fine fettle, kicking 13 goals in the first seven games. He’s kicked eight goals from his next eight matches, however, and six of those goals came in two hauls of three before he ripped his hamstring against the Western Bulldogs in Round 13.
His three games back from injury have yielded one goal and just nine marks, and only one of those was contested.
For eight years Melbourne has banked on Watts to eventually deliver in the kind of match which is presented on Saturday.
For eight years Melbourne has been largely in the wilderness. It built and rebuilt the team. The Demons brought in Paul Roos and then Simon Goodwin. They built a game plan on contested ball and a gritty attitude. They are a breath away from finals football. And they play the Saints at the MCG to live the dream.
And they don’t trust Jack Watts to deliver.
They are going with a combination of Cam Pedersen, Tom McDonald and Mitch Hannan in the forward line.
That Watts has more natural talent than the three of them is an insult to Watts and his absolute unquestionable willingness to compete.
Former Carlton captain and premiership player Mark Maclure is old-school, but his thinking is not. On AFL360 on Wednesday night, he accused Watts of still playing schoolboy football.
At 26, it was a frightful slap down - humiliating and dismissive.
Maclure’s reasoning was Watts wanted the soft ball at a time when he was required to win the hard ball. He said Watts ran to the wrong positions, ran to the easy spots as a key forward. That he didn’t present in the positions which allowed his teammates to play to team rules.
The schoolboy slap came because Maclure believed Watts was never able to be taught - or it wasn’t in him - to play key forward in the correct manner.
In the correct manner, he means finals manner - crash and bash, compete and compete again, on the ground and in the air.
Maclure might talk like he is football’s Chuck Norris, but there’s a truth to his comments.
Guessing here, but what Maclure wanted to say was Melbourne would never win a premiership with Watts in the team.
The hamstring could be an excuse, but it’s clear to everyone who listens to Goodwin that he wants no-excuse football and footballers.
True, the team has been patchy with its form of late, especially with its ability to move the ball, but there’s no denying the will and endeavour in the clinches. But when they have got it forward, Watts has been a non-factor.
The good-bloke label is irrelevant, too.
Maybe it got him a game in the past, when the depth was missing, but Melbourne in 2017 doesn’t need good blokes. It needs 22 players who put everything on the line. Watts’ teammates might love him, but winning comes first.
Forward groups are getting smaller by the season. Look at Richmond and Jack Riewoldt and his pipsqueaks. Look at the debate this week around whether GWS can win the flag with three talls (Rory Lobb, Jeremy Cameron and Jon Patton). Look at Melbourne and there’s also a desperate need for a key forward without Hogan.
Goodwin has decided it can’t be Watts.
It’s concerning for Watts that after eight years of teaching, developing and preparing him to play finals and finals-type footy, like it will be tomorrow, that on the weekend it arrives he can’t make the team.
It is a massive statement and perhaps it’s the sign of things to come.
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