No longer one of us, but perhaps of interest in the context of current discussions re “culture” at the Dees, given that he was moved on. Hope he finds a good place.

https://houseoffooty.com.au/i-was-crying-myself-to-sleep-watts-reflects-on-his-toughest-period/

 

Always liked him. Despite everything, as a player he oozed class. If he were starting with us now, with our excellent player development, he would become a champion if he committed himself.

It’s just sad that his time, was the wrong time. The Club was a mess, searching for an identity. 
if he was on our list now, he would be a very big and creative cog forward of Centre. 
i was always sad it just didn’t work out. 

Have read the article and think it's about time that the media take note and exercise some 'duty of care' of their own when reporting on issues of a personal nature to players.

Some of the stuff on Clarry and Joel Smith has been ridiculous.  The same story rehashed multiple times over with a different headline just to get a few extra clicks.  It's money for jam for the media outlets, but has a meaningful impact on the people at the centre of it, that they are selfishly profiting at the expense of.

Edited November 8, 20231 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Poor Jack he came to us when we were at our worst, our player development was so poor that we burnt a number of kids, Jack included, he could have had a much better life if he had joined us now. Sad that he has had such a terrible journey to redemption. Good luck Jack.!

Some rewriting of history going on here by some posters.

He actually got it together by 2016 & had become a really key player. Unfortunately he turned up for the 2017 pre season in poor shape & Goodie lost faith in him & his fate was sealed.

31 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Some rewriting of history going on here by some posters.

He actually got it together by 2016 & had become a really key player. Unfortunately he turned up for the 2017 pre season in poor shape & Goodie lost faith in him & his fate was sealed.

Some rewriting of history going on here by some posters?

There are only four posts other than yours in this thread!

Might as well name names.

As fate would have it I was at the G when Port played us the first year Jack was playing for the Power and his family were sitting right behind us. 

In the last quarter we had some friendly banter with them as they were all in Port gear and we were playing terrible and went on to lose. The whole time I didn't know it was Jacks family until the siren went and his dad asked me if I knew who he was! 

Really nice bloke, as were his family. I shook their hands, wished them well and let them know that I hope Jack does well at Port because we all knew the Demons were not a great club and he clearly had a tough time there. 

I truly hope Jack is in a better place. We were a terrible club back then and neither he nor the other players deserved what Connolly, Neeld and Schwab had done to the place

 

Lovely kick. If he was taking some of those set shots this year we wouldn't have gone out in straight sets.

Very interesting article. Watts deserves credit for recognising his own failings rather than trying to blame others for the mistakes he admits he has made. I'm not sure if he would ever have made it, even if he was with the power clubs at the time such as Geelong or Hawthorn. However, it's clear that the Melbourne he found himself in was clearly the wrong club for him.

(As a side note, as interesting as the article is, it could do with some significant editing. There's a lot of repetition there. Nevertheless, it's still a good read.)

I cried myself to sleep back in that era too.

To his credit he has been very honest - party, party party

Imagine if we drafted him 3 years ago, would be such a different player.

Def one of the best set shots to play for the MFC. 

Keep well Jack.

A story about jack

I attended and was in the preseason team photo a few years ago.  The process is mobility impaired and elderly people are photographed first and the rest of us follow.  It’s about one minute for each photo!  And after it’s all done players and coaches disappear usually quite quickly.  So you spend very little time with players or coaches.  

On this day, a young mobility impaired person was photographed early and stuck around.  Jack watts obviously knew him quite well and after the photo shoot came over and had a great chat to this fellow.  All other players had left.  In my view Jack was bog that day.  

Badly treated by Melbourne when young.  Beautiful kick and clever ball user.  Wish him all the best.

14 hours ago, binman said:

Some rewriting of history going on here by some posters?

There are only four posts other than yours in this thread!

Might as well name names.

The whole tragedy thing is absurd. The "High draft pick ruined by going to a dysfunctional Club" melodrama is pure BS.

Lots of good players get picked by struggling Clubs & still succeed.

Jack had his problems but eventually became a good player for us. If he had come to 2017 pre season better prepared instead of unfit he would now be a 200 plus game premiership player.

Where he ended up was entirely of his own making.

On 09/11/2023 at 11:08, Jibroni said:

Imagine if we drafted him 3 years ago, would be such a different player.

Def one of the best set shots to play for the MFC. 

Keep well Jack.

He was pretty good at connecting with targets inside 50 as well.

As you suggest, I think he had alot of the attributes that could have made him a valuable contributor to our premiership in 2021 if only he wasn't so scarred and had learnt the right habits from the start.

Edited November 10, 20231 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Loved Jack. 

I backed the club in trading him out the year as I believe it was best for both clubs and turns out it's been a massive win for us.

As other have said, had he been drafted 3 years back he'd be a weapon because he's exactly the kind of player we're lacking across half forward with his ball use and polish inside 50.

Also, he kicked some serious clutch goals in big games mind you. For a guy that was perceived as soft he could certainly play in the big games.

lovely kick but made travis johnstone look dedicated

Always one of us. That #1 spot came with a lot of baggage, and he wasn't the star we hoped for, but always one of us.

The best field kick to play for the club in my lifetime.

I'll always love Wattsy. Always a Demon in my mind.

Very fond memories of watching him looking the goods in 2016. He was regularly kicking goals and was really starting to show his full potential. Think he placed 4th or 5th in the B&F that year.

Edited March 19, 20241 yr by Demon Jack

Jack was a guest on the ABC Kat & Matt show a few Saturdays back.  Kat is apparently good friends with Jack’s sister.  Jack gave the club a wack.  Spoke of having his love for the game drained from him during his time at the dees.  Said the same happened to Jeremy Howe, and how much happier Jeremy was after joining the pies (2021 says hello!).  Mentioned he was not the Jack Viney or Maxy Gawn the coaches wanted him to be.  Felt he was accepted for who he was at Port.  I switched between felling embarrassed and angry at the club, to also being peed off at Jack for bringing it all up again and not mentioning his role in his career outcome.    Sad all round really. 

Slow news day

22 minutes ago, Deebymistake said:

Jack was a guest on the ABC Kat & Matt show a few Saturdays back.  Kat is apparently good friends with Jack’s sister.  Jack gave the club a wack.  Spoke of having his love for the game drained from him during his time at the dees.  Said the same happened to Jeremy Howe, and how much happier Jeremy was after joining the pies (2021 says hello!).  Mentioned he was not the Jack Viney or Maxy Gawn the coaches wanted him to be.  Felt he was accepted for who he was at Port.  I switched between felling embarrassed and angry at the club, to also being peed off at Jack for bringing it all up again and not mentioning his role in his career outcome.    Sad all round really. 

Me thinks there has been a little historical manipulation by our/Ports Jack. He is never going to admit his part in his leaving both MFC and PAFC.

11 minutes ago, Deebymistake said:

Jack was a guest on the ABC Kat & Matt show a few Saturdays back.  Kat is apparently good friends with Jack’s sister.  Jack gave the club a wack.  Spoke of having his love for the game drained from him during his time at the dees.  Said the same happened to Jeremy Howe, and how much happier Jeremy was after joining the pies (2021 says hello!).  Mentioned he was not the Jack Viney or Maxy Gawn the coaches wanted him to be.  Felt he was accepted for who he was at Port.  I switched between felling embarrassed and angry at the club, to also being peed off at Jack for bringing it all up again and not mentioning his role in his career outcome.    Sad all round really. 

Without being in the inner circle, from the outside looking in, he's both right and wrong. We were horribly dysfunctional from end 2006 until probably 2018... and then we've still got some serious issues in the background at the moment. However the Viney's and Gawn's are the men that drive standards. It's no bad thing to use them as a yardstick. But he didn't put his hand up and say the cliche' if it's to be, it's up to me'

No blame game here. We let him down, and he let himself down. Maybe if he was drafted into a better org he'd have been a better player... or maybe not.