Tim Watson blasts David Koch after Port Adelaide chairman said it’s not a great look if Essendon get No.1 draft pick

ESSENDON great Tim Watson has blasted David Koch as “thoughtless” after the Port Adelaide chairman said it isn’t a good look for the game if the Bombers are awarded the No.1 draft pick.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — MAY 22: Brendon Goddard of the Bombers (C) and teammates look dejected after defeat during the round nine AFL match between the St Kilda Saints and the Essendon Bombers at Etihad Stadium on May 22, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

TIM Watson has blasted David Koch as “thoughtless” after the Port Adelaide chairman said it isn’t a good look for the game if the Bombers are awarded the No.1 draft pick this year.

Essendon now sit in last position on the ladder on percentage after Fremantle recorded its first win of the season against John Worsfold’s team on Saturday night.

The struggling Bombers have not won a game since sensationally upsetting Melbourne at the MCG in Round 2 and are expected to claim the wooden spoon, thus receiving the No.1 draft pick.

But Koch isn’t happy about it.

“It does not seem right, not a great look,” the Port Adelaide chairman said on Sunrise on Wednesday morning.

The Bombers have 12 of its best players suspended for the season following the successful WADA appeal against the club’s 2012 supplements program.

Watson, the father of banned Essendon skipper Jobe Watson, says there is no doubt the Bombers “deserve” access to the best player in this year’s draft pool, however, despite the reasons for the team’s fortunes this year.

“It’s opportunistic for someone in the position like he holds, David Koch, to make a statement like that. Even an off-the-cuff statement like that because there is a power associated with the words of people that hold positions like he holds,” Watson said on SEN.

“There should be more thought given to what he says.

“The rules are what the rules are and Essendon deserve the number one pick if they finish 18th.”

In 2013 the AFL imposed the harshest penalties in the game’s history on Essendon for the supplements saga, including being excluded from the finals series that year and stripped of draft picks.

Watson says the club has been penalised enough.

“I think he’s saying because the players have been suspended by WADA,” he said.

David Koch says it isn’t a good look if Essendon receives the No.1 draft pick. Picture: Calum Robertson

“I hope we’re not (going back over it). Essendon has been penalised, I think sufficiently for something that may or may not have taken place — the probability of players being given banned substances is still 50-50.

“The fact then that they finish where they do this year is a result of the number of suspended players.

“The same thing could happen if you had injured players. If you had a number of injuries and you ended up down the ladder for the same reason are we then to say ‘your team could have been better last year had you had all your talented players available’.

“The AFL have already penalised Essendon back (in) 2013. I don’t know that they need to keep penalising Essendon forever.

“The club has put its hand up and said it botched a supplement program, they’ve paid the penalty for that, they’re still paying the penalty for that. The AFL have imposed their penalty, which they’ve already served.”

Essendon has won just one game this season. Picture: Getty

Koch was responding to comments made by Worsfold who was asked whether Essendon should get the No.1 pick should it finish last.

“That’s what the rules say,” Worsfold said. “I just go whether we deserve it or not, the rules will allocate the draft order according to finishing positions on the ladder.”

AFL football operations boss Mark Evans said on Sunday the Bombers have been penalised enough and now need to rebuild.

“I was certainly a significant set of sanctions that they received at the time ... then after a delay the Court of Arbitration for Sport gives players 12 months off but we think it should end there,” he told 3AW.

Originally published as Tim Watson blasts David Koch after Port Adelaide chairman said it’s not a great look if Essendon get No.1 draft pick