Jobe Watson admits the four-year Essendon drugs saga changed his life and his footy

UPON announcing his retirement, Essendon champ Jobe Watson revealed the “hurt” of the club’s drugs scandal and how AFL footy was never the same after his return.

JOBE Watson walks away from the game he once loved admitting his heart was broken by the Essendon drugs saga.

Watson, 32, announced on Wednesday he was retiring at the end of the season after a stellar career stained by four years of scandal.

“It’s a little bit like you’re in a relationship and a partner cheats on you ... you might get back together but you probably don’t love her the same way — that’s a little bit like how I feel about it,” Watson said.

Why Essendon fans will always love Jobe Watson

Jobe Watson reveals what he did with Brownlow Medal during retirement press conference

“I love the game but it doesn’t feel the same to me as what it once did.

“There’s probably just hurt associated with it, and when you get inflicted like that, with that sort of pain, then invariably the way you feel about something changes.”

Fighting back tears, Watson said the low point of the saga was not the loss of his 2012 Brownlow Medal but the day in January last year when he and 33 teammates were wiped out for doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“The most difficult time was certainly after the WADA finding, having to be there with my teammates and go through that,” he said.

Watson said he decided to retire after Saturday’s narrow eight-point win over Carlton at the MCG, broke the news to coach John Worsfold in his office on Monday and told his teammates early on Wednesday.

Watson won the club’s best and fairest three times and was twice an All-Australian but the years immediately following his Brownlow Medal win were plagued by the doping scandal.

He was Essendon captain from 2010 until the end of 2015.

“It was a dream for me to play for the Essendon Football Club,” Watson said.

Jobe Watson on Brownlow Medal night, 2012. Picture: AAP

Former Bombers coach Mark Thompson said Watson had emerged from the shadow of his legendary father — triple Essendon premiership star Tim Watson — to his leave own legacy.

“He’s had a marvellous career and one he had to carve out for himself,” Thompson said.

“Being the son of Tim, he had to prove to the world that he could play — and he did.

“But the last five years have just taken his football and work life away. We haven’t seen the best of him because of that.”

Asked he could understand Watson’s bitterness to the game, Thompson said: “I can understand it, yes. From the players’ point of view he’s probably been at the front of this whole messed up investigation.

Jobe Watson and his teammates face the media during the supplements saga. Picture Stuart Walmsley

“He copped the brunt of most of the negative criticism, especially the Brownlow ... I just feel like they’ve taken it off him for no reason at all.”

Watson revealed he last laid eyes on the medal after handing it to his parents in late 2012.

Mystery surrounds whether the medal was ever returned to the league under the AFL Commission decision that saw runners-up Trent Cotchin and Sam Mitchell declared as winners after his WADA suspension.

Watson was found guilty of using the banned peptide Thymosin beta-4 during the 2012 season after WADA appealed an initial not guilty verdict delivered by the AFL anti-doping tribunal.

He was infamously booed by fans at Subiaco in 2013 after admitting on Fox Footy to receiving injections of the contentious peptide AOD-9604, which was later acknowledged as a permitted substance.

Jobe Watson's career

Games

217

Goals

112

Father-son selection at Pick 40

2002 National Draft

Debut

Round 1, 2003

Essendon captaincy

2010-2015

All-Australian

2012, 2013

Essendon best-and-fairest

2009, 2010, 2012

Watson was one of seven Bombers players cross-examined by WADA lawyers and three CAS members in the November 2015 hearing that ultimately led to the bans.

Asked directly about the use of Thymosin, Watson told the tribunal: “He (Stephen Dank) said there were two kinds, there was a good and a bad, and that we would be taking the good one”.

Watson said he knew it was time to retire because the game had sped up and he had slowed down.

“I know that the time is up, and I think the worst thing you can do is lie to yourself and try to convince yourself that it’s not, but deep down you know,” he said.

“I always focused on leaving the club in a better place than I found it. Despite everything that happened, I feel it is in a good place.”