Jack Watts Interview

[London Demon 259]

I found this interview moving. Yes he made some mistakes but the principal fault was with the club, no question about that. His was a huge talent, and if he had been better taken care of in the first few years he would have got a bit closer than he did to fulfilling it. Some  parts of this is sad but Jack is clearly is an ok space now and I’m sure it helped him to get some of the past off his chest . If he was in the system at the club now I’ve now doubt he would be a real star. As it was he played c 130 games with us , many good ones, was loyal, loved the Dees, And clearly still does despite the hurt. I hope he will stay in touch with the Club, and if and when he does come back in whatever capacity that he is given the welcome and respect he so deserves. 

[kev martin 9,892]

6 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

When you're 8 years into the system with nearly 150 games in your career, maybe coming back to pre season in poor shape isn't exactly showing the right commitment to the team.

It was well known his application to training and off field standards was pretty poor. 

He was given ample of opportunities to change this.

 

I was watching training at the time when Watts was singled out as not training well.

I couldn't see it. He appeared to be the best kick and was instrumental in setting up plays during simulations.

My guess, something off field or behind closed doors affected his standing at the club. 

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

8 minutes ago, kev martin said:

I was watching training at the time when Watts was singled out as not training well.

I couldn't see it. He appeared to be the best kick and was instrumental in setting up plays during simulations.

My guess, something off field or behind closed doors affected his standing at the club. 

His skills and disposal could never be questioned.

It's what he did outside of football and applying himself on the track from a work ethic aspect is why the club got rid of him.

[Ollie fan 3,408]

Both good habits and bad habits start early. Our player development then was criminal. Jack Watts is the worst example but there were dozens of others. He could have been a beautiful player and an absolute star.

[jumbo returns 6,741]

Ffs

Again?

Let him live his life

 

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

3 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Particularly after finally finishing in the top 5 at the B&F,  lamenting how it took him so long to get there and then promising to work harder.

He just didn't want it.

Its not a crime just a waste.

He made an interesting comment. He said when he went on overseas trips with Max Gawn, it was Maxy who was waking up early hours of the morning to go for runs and would try and drag Jack along. Jack said he would complain Max to let him sleep in for a couple of minutes etc.

Such stark contrast between both careers..

[Pates 9,660]

16 minutes ago, Ollie fan said:

Both good habits and bad habits start early. Our player development then was criminal. Jack Watts is the worst example but there were dozens of others. He could have been a beautiful player and an absolute star.

100%. I can imagine there were draftees praying that we didn’t choose them. It appeared to be a career death sentence. 

[jumbo returns 6,741]

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He made an interesting comment. He said when he went on overseas trips with Max Gawn, it was Maxy who was waking up early hours of the morning to go for runs and would try and drag Jack along. Jack said he would complain Max to let him sleep in for a couple of minutes etc.

Such stark contrast between both careers..

A kid wants to sleep in?

[censored] - what a crime!!

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

1 minute ago, jumbo returns said:

A kid wants to sleep in?

[censored] - what a crime!!

I know you're still mourning the loss of Watts. So I'm not one bit surprised about this comment.

You were also very critical and quite vocal of Simon Goodwin when it all happened and made some pretty pathetic comments towards him.

Time to admit the club got it right pal.

[jumbo returns 6,741]

1 minute ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I know you're still mourning the loss of Watts. So I'm not one bit surprised about this comment.

You were also very critical and quite vocal of Simon Goodwin when it all happened and made some pretty pathetic comments towards him.

Time to admit the club got it right pal.

Listen DD36, I just want this young man to live his life

We all need to move on - wasted talent, attitude, blah blah

He was a Dees' player that never quite worked out...like so many others in the AFL

And pathetic comments? Puh - lease! We can't all have your level of eloquence and footy knowledge

Done for tonight - I'm looking forward to GWS and Geelong crashing and bashing the [censored] out each other

Be well

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

25 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

Listen DD36, I just want this young man to live his life

We all need to move on - wasted talent, attitude, blah blah

He was a Dees' player that never quite worked out...like so many others in the AFL

And pathetic comments? Puh - lease! We can't all have your level of eloquence and footy knowledge

Done for tonight - I'm looking forward to GWS and Geelong crashing and bashing the [censored] out each other

Be well

Jack went on an open to public podcast to happily discuss his own life and football career. It was a fantastic insight into the dark days that troubled not only him but many other young players.

Fans on a footy forum also discussing and reflecting on the exact same thing Jack openly talked about on the podcast. No one got personal, no one called him names and in fact everyone pretty much openly said how much they loved Jack.

Don't open the thread if it's going to trigger you so much.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by dazzledavey36

[jumbo returns 6,741]

14 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Jack went on an open to public podcast to happily discuss his own life and football career. It was a fantastic insight into the dark days that troubled not only him but many other young players.

Fans on a footy forum also discussing and reflecting on the exact same thing Jack openly talked about on the podcast. No one got personal, no one called him names and in fact everyone pretty much openly said how much they loved Jack.

Don't open the thread if it's going to trigger you so much.

 

You're the one that really, really needs to move on 

Hang in there...

[KingDingAling 3,758]

Judging by that interview, and others I’ve listened to since retirement, Watts appears to be a little bit lost at present. He is realizing that he needs to mature and grow. Clearly he’s thought about life after football, and doesn’t know what his future looks like. No disgrace in that either. I think he’d make a good PE teacher, or in future a sports agent. He is very humble. You can tell he’s a bit down himself. There is no need to be. You were a hell of a talent, the coaching staff just didn’t utilize you correctly.

[Guest]

Fantastic interview.

Jack seems to be a bit regretful about what might have been. Still a delightful and personable fella, but there seems to be a feeling of ‘what might have been’. Much of it wasn’t his fault, but I get the feeling he might have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. He could only work with what he was equipped with in his defense.

A lot of the stuff he said about each of his respective coaches wasn’t news. Though some of the Neeld anecdotes were curious to say the least (i.e. blaming Jack for losing a game to Freo by 80 points for telling a particularly funny joke 2 hours before the bounce).

[Demons1858 1,760]

So Jack did himself no favours by only achieving basic afl fitness and below par intensity. All of which were in his control. With his elite talents he should have had a better career regardless of mfcs poor development programs

[Guest]

10 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He made an interesting comment. He said when he went on overseas trips with Max Gawn, it was Maxy who was waking up early hours of the morning to go for runs and would try and drag Jack along. Jack said he would complain Max to let him sleep in for a couple of minutes etc.

Such stark contrast between both careers..

I think Jack’s career a lot of the time could be summed up by the analogy of the ‘fork in the road’, and he often chose the wrong or most expedient option.

That anecdote was telling, but was very much in line with the trip to Byron Bay to promote his bloody board shorts, rather than staying in Melbourne to work on his rehab.

That hamstring injury went from being a 1 to 2 week deal from memory to stretching out to 4 to 5.

What made it all the more infuriating was that Jack was in peak form at that stage. The game that he did it in against the Dogs saw him play his role perfectly (3 odd goals, strong marking and plenty of score involvements).

He had also inexplicably turned up to preseason unfit and looking like the Bond villain, Max Zorin, in ‘A View to a Kill’ (Google him) to put an even bigger target on his back.

Goody confronted him. He got back in favor through doing the right thing. He started putting some decent form together. Then he, not for the last time in his career, made the worst choice available.

He is indubitably a likable fella as Crawf pointed out. He is without a question talented. But I fully agree with you Dazzle. The right choice was made in moving him on. I believe that the concern at the time was that Jack’s habits (ala putting the bare minimum in to be an AFL player) would rub off on our younger players. 

 

 

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

24 minutes ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

I think Jack’s career a lot of the time could be summed up by the analogy of the ‘fork in the road’, and he often chose the wrong or most expedient option.

That anecdote was telling, but was very much in line with the trip to Byron Bay to promote his bloody board shorts, rather than staying in Melbourne to work on his rehab.

That hamstring injury went from being a 1 to 2 week deal from memory to stretching out to 4 to 5.

What made it all the more infuriating was that Jack was in peak form at that stage. The game that he did it in against the Dogs saw him play his role perfectly (3 odd goals, strong marking and plenty of score involvements).

He had also inexplicably turned up to preseason unfit and looking like the Bond villain, Max Zorin, in ‘A View to a Kill’ (Google him) to put an even bigger target on his back.

Goody confronted him. He got back in favor through doing the right thing. He started putting some decent form together. Then he, not for the last time in his career, made the worst choice available.

He is indubitably a likable fella as Crawf pointed out. He is without a question talented. But I fully agree with you Dazzle. The right choice was made in moving him on. I believe that the concern at the time was that Jack’s habits (ala putting the bare minimum in to be an AFL player) would rub off on our younger players. 

 

 

Agree 100%

I think he's papers got stamped when he turned up in poor condition alongside the bleached hair. Even though he managed to play round 1 I think the damage was already done.

Interestingly he mentioned Brendan McCartney as well. This is a guy came that from a culture that was built through sheer hard work and a strong culture on and off field. He could probably sense that Watts would not only be a negative influence on our younger players but probably didn't have the work ethic to fit into the culture Goody was building.

I look at the way our team is extremely disciplined on and off field and this is a by product from the moment Goody started coaching tenure. This is the exactly the culture he wanted to build from day dot.

The net effect also was we picked up Bayley Fritsch with the Watts pick. Fritta has just kicked his 50th goal for the season in just his 4th season in the AFL.

Absolute win for the club.

[Half forward flank 1,022]

Jack was a tall, co ordinated kid who played full forward for his school in a nice competition. He had an edge on opponents for height and smarts from basketball to lead out and take an easy mark with one undersized defender on him. Yes he was a beautiful kick to get three or four goals in school footy. i was so underwhelmed when I saw the footage Shifta Sheahan played to accompany the fanfare around Jack. That said he was a lovely footballer to watch and a nice guy. Maybe a Mark Williams would of helped but it is all history now. Good luck to Jack. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Half forward flank

[AllMyTeamsAreWank 564]

I think Bailey Fritsch is an example of what could have been with Jack, although I believe Jack has more natural talent. Jack was drafted to a club that had no idea how to develop talent, which clearly evident through the fact only three players on the list at the time went on to have meaningful careers. Had Jack started his career with the formation of good habits, strong role models and most importantly a genuine enjoyment for the game, we would be looking back on Jack's career in a very different light. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Interestingly he mentioned Brendan McCartney as well. This is a guy came that from a culture that was built through sheer hard work and a strong culture on and off field. He could probably sense that Watts would not only be a negative influence on our younger players but probably didn't have the work ethic to fit into the culture Goody was building.

Listening to the interview, it also showed the way you go about it when calling up players for transgressing.

Ed Langdon has gone on record as saying that he has yet to hear Goody raise his voice since he’s been at the club. This is telling as I think it’s key part of his arsenal in how he confronts players. 

Steven May stated that Goody him him straight between the eyes in 2019 in his assessment of how committed he was to his footy. It sounds like something happened with Jack along those lines. 

In both cases, Goody was willing to support both players if they wanted to get back into the 22 (in May’s case, he was willing to hit the gym with him). May grasped the opportunity with both hands and hasn’t looked back since. Jack was able to temporarily redeem himself before the aforementioned trip to Byron.

Where Jack and Crawf were partially correct in what they said was that if you are to pull up people for stepping outside the parameters set, you need to show genuine care (though they articulated it as ‘having fun’) for your players. Goody, Roosy and Ken Hinkley were great at that. Alas, Neeldy’s approach was the antithesis of ‘care’ when he was at the club. Some of those stories about 4:30AM swims belonged in the 1980’s.

Where I do have sympathy for Jack relates to what @AllMyTeamsAreWank said. Had Jack walked into a club that had strong role models, his career could have been miles ahead of what he did achieve (though getting a game in the first place at the highest level is no small thing).

Bernie Vince, a player who is as bubbly and sociable as Jack and is a bit of a lad like him as well, has gone on record saying that he was a pretty wild kid when he started at the Crows. It wasn’t until Goody pulled him aside and taught him what was required to make it as an AFL player that the penny dropped. 

Jack never had that and it was tragic. By the time the building blocks were in place, it was probably too late to get Jack to change his ways.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Colin B. Flaubert
Added the extra comment.

[dazzledavey36 54,944]

All good points @Colin B. Flaubert.

The biggest thing I also took out of the interview and sad in a way because it really did have a bad impact on player’s psychological welfare was just how bad Mark Neeld was for the footy club.

You hear stuff from past players like Brad Green and Brent Moloney but I thought Jack touched on the real depths and sensitivity damage it had on the playing group. Some of the stuff Watts mentioned that Neeld use to do was just dead set awful. 

Full praise to Paul Roos, Peter Jackson and Simon Goodwin in installing belief and confidence back into the group.

[dieter 3,325]

12 hours ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

Though some of the Neeld anecdotes were curious to say the least (i.e. blaming Jack for losing a game to Freo by 80 points for telling a particularly funny joke 2 hours before the bounce).

 Neeld's first job was as a school teacher at Ivanhoe Grammar: a remark like that sounds very school-teacherous to me. I'm glad I didn't have him for a teacher.

[Pates 9,660]

Was shaking my head hearing the BS about him being told at the start of the season he would debut after a 10 week program no matter what. I mean we all knew it but far out what a joke of a club we had back then, commercial benefit dictating team selection makes me want to vomit. 

[Webber 10,468]

2 hours ago, AllMyTeamsAreWank said:

I believe Jack has more natural talent

This is interesting. Jack’s going no.1, regardless of him deserving it, immediately fulfilled an elite talent narrative. Bailey Fritsch on the other hand missed the draft and went through VFL. In his first season at Casey, he was kicking goals, sometimes bags. When I first saw him, I couldn’t believe how a kid that bizarrely skinny wasn’t just getting pushed around, and then back to the lower leagues. Given his physiognomy, Fritsch is a really rare talent, but obviously came in with virtually no pedigree and admittedly very low expectations. For mine, he’s a more naturally talented footballer than Jack Watts. No disrespect to Jack, his best will always be something I think we never saw and for all the reasons outlined in this thread. 

[Pates 9,660]

I think the sad thing to hear is that during the Neeld era there was fear and dread about turning up to training. I’m sure he wasn’t alone with that as well, when there’s that kind of atmosphere in any organisation you are never going to have success. I hate Sheedy, but even he would’ve been a much better choice as say what you like about him he has a passion for footy and it came out in his players. It sounded like Neeld had a passion for discipline and being unlikeable. All this matching players up against each other, punishing those that came in the bottom part, AFL is competitive enough as it is without pitting teammates against each other. I remember seeing in Hell and Back, Burgess would do these competitions but the winners were praised, the losers weren’t chastised.  

Thank [censored] Roos came in and flipped everything on its head. I actually think Jack would’ve turned into a much better (possibly still playing) footballer if he had someone like Roos from the start. Dean Bailey’s (RIP) sacking was a mistake by the club sadly.