VFL 2025: Whittlesea product Blake Watson rises to Sandringham captaincy
Blake Watson isn’t quite sure how he ended up at Sandringham. But he knows one thing: he’s proud to have been appointed captain of the VFL Zebras. PAUL AMY goes inside his rise.
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Although it’s in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, there is a sea to Whittlesea, at least by name.
So perhaps it is fitting that Blake Watson landed by the bay, at Sandringham and the Trevor Barker Beach Oval.
It’s just that the new Zebras captain is unsure exactly how it happened.
After a long break from football to focus on tennis, Watson resumed playing for Whittlesea in 2018, quickly rising from the Under 19s to the senior side.
He was in a premiership in 2019, and won the best and fairest and was named in the Division 1 Northern league team of the year in 2021.
That was the season he felt he established himself as a footballer.
“There wasn’t a lot to do during Covid, so I got really fit and got in the gym and it helped take my game to the next level,’’ he says.
Wanting to test himself at a higher standard, the onballer tried out for Sandringham’s list in 2022. He made it – just.
“I think I was one of the last players to get a contract, to be honest,’’ he says. “Just scraped in.’’
Now he’s the club’s new captain, joining a new CEO, Mark Wheeler, and new senior coach, Brendon Goddard, in the leadership positions at Sandy.
How did he end up bayside?
“Funny you say that. I’m not 100 per cent sure of who it was in the end,’’ Watson says.
The Zebras are on fire! Blake Watson snaps truly to extend their first quarter lead.
— VFL / VFLW (@VFL) April 16, 2022
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“Xavier Dimasi is the captain of Whittlesea and he’d been on Box Hill’s list and I said if an opportunity came about, I’d love to give the VFL a crack. He had some connections at VFL level and Andy Farrell, who was an assistant at Sandy at the time, had coached ‘Dima’ and that’s potentially where it came from. But I got a call from Josh Vella at Sandy one day asking me down for a pre-season. Sounds terrible of me, doesn’t it? But I’m not sure how it happened.’’
Although Watson, 25, still lists Whittlesea as his home club and indeed his home address, he spends a lot of his time in the south-east, working as a draughtsman in Keysborough. His partner lives in Dingley.
Watson played 15 senior games in his first year with the Zebras, good going for a player straight out of suburban football. But he had five fewer matches in 2023.
He was disappointed with his second season. “I didn’t have the impact I thought I could have. I thought I lost a bit of trust there maybe,’’ he says. “I think I played 10 games of local that year, which I think helped me go back and build my confidence. I was feeling good about my footy but maybe just wasn’t getting the opportunity … obviously being in an aligned club, we get St Kilda midfielders back each week and sometimes you don’t get a game.’’
Last season he bounced back to play 17 matches, averaging 15.1 possessions as a half-forward and midfielder.
The club judged him most determined, most courageous and he shared the player-of-the-year award.
St Kilda had announced it would rookie-list a Sandringham player (a deal it later pulled out of) and there were people at the Saints who thought Watson could possibly fill the position. One St Kilda assistant described him as a “ripper’’.
The Saints saw a bit of Watson in the pre-season, when he took time off work to train with the AFL players.
Blake Watson from THERE??! Wowee ðŸ‘
— VFL / VFLW (@VFL) May 12, 2024
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*****
Blake Watson never imagined he would ever win Wimbledon, but in 2018 he did have to make a decision: should he pursue tennis or football?
He had played in Futures events and was getting things lined up to take his racquet bag to college in the US.
As he did, he played for Whittlesea Under 19s. He had not been on a football field since 2012, as an Under 13.
“With tennis, I wasn’t quite good enough to make it on the tour,’’ he says.
“But I did play lower-level Futures … I was at that intermediate, almost-there, not-quite-good-enough level.
“Everything was more or less in place for me to go to college, and then a few of my mates got me to play footy. They were like, ‘Oh, you know, if you play college tennis, if you’re there for four years, you’ll never play footy again’. I did think if I went all-in on tennis I wouldn’t play footy again. So I played in the Under 19s for a bit of fun. I was meant to leave for the US in August. But some things didn’t align over there and I was really enjoying my footy. It went from there with Whittlesea.’’
He had deep ties to the club through his grandfathers, Ray Watson and Des Parker, and father, Chris, who played more than 300 games for the Eagles.
Eight years on, he’s leading the Zebras, his name to go on the honour board alongside such great Sandy figures as Anthony Allen, David MacGeorge, Chad Liddell and Nick Sautner.
“It’s a real honour, because it’s such a proud club,’’ he says. “Such a proud and successful club over the journey, even though we haven’t had that much success of late. Hopefully that change is right around the corner.’’
He sees the 2025 season as “full of opportunity for everyone at Sandy’’.
In some respects Watson is the last senior man standing at Sandy, with Darby Hipwell, Oliver Lowe, Anthony Seaton, Hugo Hall-Kahan and Tom Blamires having waved their farewells.
They’ve been replaced by hopefuls from the Coates Talent League and local ranks.
Watson says a “clean slate’’ has been wiped.
“With ‘Wheels’ (Wheeler) and Tia (football manager Tia Pastore) coming in, the back-end of the club’s in such a good place.
“I know front-of-mind for ‘Wheels’ is Sandringham and the future. With the players we’ve got, we’re super-young and we can build and grow together and grab every opportunity we can. We’re developing some good culture and some connected behaviours together, and we’re excited to see what comes of it.’’
Originally published as VFL 2025: Whittlesea product Blake Watson rises to Sandringham captaincy
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