Jack Watts makes changes in his life in bid to redefine his career
Jack Watts played arguably his best game in a long time last weekend which came after a summer seeking redemption and some tough love from Ken Hinkley, now Port Adelaide is waiting to see what happens next.
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Jack Watts has spent a decade known as the game’s best bloke and most disappointing footballer.
By his own words, he has endured the past summer believing he might be its worst bloke as well.
Following twin controversies and a rollercoaster career full of occasional highs and crushing disappointments, Watts has made profound changes to his life in the past four months in a bid to redeem himself.
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Last Saturday against Melbourne, Jack was seen to be back.
Yet what Port Adelaide needs is for him to be reliable Jack
The club’s attempt to help him find that equilibrium — allowing Watts to play a steady, consistent, week-in, week-out defensive role — will be one of the fascinating storylines of the year.
As the club’s greatest player Warren Tredrea told the Herald Sun, Watts has a chance to redefine his career.
“At the end of the day he has to establish himself,” Tredrea said.
“What we have seen (last week) is a great piece, but it’s only one piece.
“I thought it was the best game we have seen from him in a long, long time and that includes the year where he kicked 30 goals for Melbourne as a high half-forward.
“Maybe he has realised how important footy is to him and is playing with an air of desperation. And that is what he has been much-maligned for lacking.
“For some people the penny drops later, and for some it never drops. It was really impressive, but he has to do it again and again.”
Last October when a media storm was breaking over the Watts’ sexting scandal — and his relationship was breaking up — he decided to act.
Watts self-funded a two-week fitness camp at a New South Wales health retreat, then returned to the club in career-best shape for that time of the season.
As a veteran player he was eligible for extra leave but instead turned up to work a week early — only seven days after the club’s first-to-four year players — to show his renewed commitment.
Port Adelaide had lured Watts from Melbourne aware of his deficiencies.
Melbourne agreed to pay about $70,000 of his salary in 2018 and 2019, and then-Demons CEO Peter Jackson said: “There was one club making one offer at the end of the day and that says something”.
But Port believed his exceptional foot skills would help a club with a clear issue in its midfield-forward connection.
Their faith was misguided. Last year was a fail.
So the club’s decision to play him at half-back this year was not actually that inspired — it had nowhere else to put him.
Coach Ken Hinkley had realised he would need to reinvent Watts given his performances and regular stints in the SANFL.
When he returned to the club for pre-season Hinkley read him the old-fashioned riot act.
That being a good person is respecting those around you, that being a good person is actually showing good characteristics.
Flashing that beautiful smile and being unfailingly polite in public wasn’t actually enough if your private life didn’t mirror that persona.
In the first week of February came the second controversy — a video was shared on social media of Watts snorting a powder, later found to be the legal Wiesn Pulver (glucose and menthol), off a woman’s breasts during what appeared to a German-style Oktoberfest celebration.
He was later cleared by the AFL’s integrity team but for Watts, already having issues about respect for women, it was another hit.
Watts built his form through the JLT Series — 17 possessions against Adelaide, 24 touches and 12 marks against North Melbourne — before tackling his old team in Round 1.
Then came last week’s breakout game, and an emotional post-match interview.
Port Adelaide is waiting to see what happens next, aware that nothing is guaranteed in the weird and wonderful world of Jack Watts.
“People have a weird infatuation with Jack. It’s always Jack Watts is back or Jack Watts is no good. We need to keep that sense of equilibrium in his life,” said one insider.
Tredrea believes he has a future at Port Adelaide.
“It’s surprising it’s taken coaches so long to get him into that role, but he’s an elite kick, a great decision maker, a good mark above his head, the perfect drop-off player,” Tredrea said.
“He can play a vital role for Port Adelaide.
“He is not a crash-and-bash player but through his own actions he has got a fair kick up the backside and by all reports, with the people I speak to, he has made every post a winner.
“Off the back of that embarrassment, which has upset himself and his family, it has taken a mental toll. Now it’s all up to Jack.”
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