CEO's Peter Jackson's announcement of the club's decision to draft Jobe Watson:
Essendon Football Club is pleased to confirm that we will be using our Round 3 draft pick in the forthcoming National draft to pick Jobe Watson under the Father and Son rule. Jobe is the son of one of our favourite sons - Tim Watson. Jobe has played his football in recent times with Xavier College and Sandringham Dragons and this year represented the Victorian Metropolitan side in the Teal Cup. He doesn't look it in his school uniform at the moment, but he is in the same mould as his father - if you watch him play football and the way he fills out his football uniform - he is very much as Tim was as a youngster. One of the hardest things Jobe will have to cope with at the Essendon Football Club is the inevitable comparisons that are going to happen between himself and father Tim. The reality is the hardest things he will have to cope with is the fact that his head coach also coached his father - which is probably something Kevin (Sheedy) might find hard to cope with because it shows how long Kevin has been around the place. I am sure they will sit around meal times and compare notes on what Kevin is doing now, compared to what he did 15-20 years ago.
We are very delighted to have Jobe with us because these are the sort of decisions clubs are happy to make because it continues the traditions and values of football clubs being able to get the sons of such superstar players as Tim Watson. We are sure that Jobe will have a long and successful career with the football club.
Jobe Watson's thoughts on being drafted to the Essendon Football Club:
Q. Is this a dream come true?
A. I guess it is. You dream as a little kid running around in the rooms of Essendon that one day hopefully you might play for them and be apart of it. It really is a bit of a blur at the moment - I am absolutely thrilled to be considered and eventually picked up.
Q. Do you see yourself in the same mould as your father?
A. Not really but I did see a couple of playing photos of him the other day and I thought maybe I do look a little bit like him. I don't really have some of his attributes that I would have liked. I enjoy people comparing because he was a fantastic player and one day I hope to get to his level.
Q. How does it feel to know you are going to play under Kevin Sheedy, who also coached your dad?
A. I can't really believe it is true. You see these kinds of people and you think is it really me and am I really here. I think that is what it is going to be for a couple of months - even talking to Kevin Sheedy. It is pretty much a dream come true.
Q. When do you start at the club?
A. I am not entirely sure. I came down a couple of weeks ago to meet some people and get a feel for the club but the actual date I start, I am not sure. I have an operation coming up in September (on a torn ligament in my finger), so I suppose it will be after that.
Q. Did your mum have any reservations about you being drafted?
A. No she was absolutely thrilled. I think both parents are really proud of me. I think she is a bit worried about me playing with all of these big blokes that I might get hurt or something.
Q.How did you find out you might get drafted to Essendon?
A. Dad just said that he had been talking to Adrian Dodoro a bit and they are thinking that if you improve a bit, they might consider you. You can't take it in at the one time.
Q. Do you have any desire to wear number 32?
A. I haven't really given it a lot of thought. I am pretty pleased to even be here. It is something that people expect and assume but I don't really mind. It is not something that I have given a lot of thought to.
Q. Have people build things up around you because you are being drafted?
A. I am just doing something that I really love to do. People build things up which aren't really right and you are just playing footy - there is nothing else really about it. You are just having fun and being around blokes you want to be around. You have to think about things realistically - it is something you are doing for fun.
Q. How are you going focussing on your schoolwork?
A. It has been pretty hard but you just have to get your priorities right. Obviously school comes first and then when I finish at the end of the year, you start to think about your future. From now until the end of the year it is ""head down, bum up"" in the books.
Q. Do you have any study goals beyond year 12?
A. I want to go to university but I am not entirely sure on the specific path. Some sort of arts course or business course maybe.
Q. What do your school mates say?
A. They keep me in line and make sure I don't get a big head about it. All my school mates have been really good about it.
Q. Did you always want to play for Essendon?
A. Yes. As a kid I always dreamed of playing for Essendon, so there was never really a question of playing for anyone else.
Q. Who were your favourite players - other than your dad?
A. I always admired Terry Daniher and I often liked some of the young guys because they played with me when I was a kid. I would always ask mum, who used to do stuff with me and she used to tell me how David Grenvold taking me to the tip and stuff like that.
Q.Did the tragedy that your family endured earlier in the year, when your cousin Jake tragically died - did that make you re-consider for football?
A. It really hit me hard because Jake loved playing footy and he would have given anything to be playing AFL. It is something that made be stand back and realise that footy isn't the most important thing in life. Footy is one aspect of life but realistically living everyday and enjoying everyday is the main thing. It certainly did spur me on to take this path because it is something that he really wanted to do and I feel like I am sort of doing it for the both of us.
Kevin Sheedy's thoughts on drafting Jobe Watson:
Q.How does it make you feel having Jobe at the club?
A. It is great to see the kids come along. I wouldn't like to compare him with his dad but if he wants to play like Roger Merrett or someone like that - that is fine. In the end, it is great for Tim and Suzie, Jobe's parents. It is a great effort to let Jobe play footy because a lot of past champion’s kids don't play footy because the parents want to push them into something else. I think Jobe in his own way got to like the game that his dad did and I think the Watson family has always been a good footy family. It is good for Jobe to come to a club like Essendon and I think the most important thing is that we help him develop as a person and the footy will come along when it comes along.
Q. What attributes of Jobe's attracted you to him?
A. I think he can read the play very well and he knows where the ball is going. I have watched him train at Xavier a few times and he has a lot of improvement in him and that is up to us to help him along that pathway. I think his attitude has always been pretty good too. He has played with injuries so he has been hardened enough to understand what footy is about and what it is going to be about because it is a pretty tough game.
Q. Is there anything in Jobe's playing style that reminds you of Tim?
A. Probably reading the game, I think Tim had a pretty good handle on reading the game. He has pretty good hands and is definitely a very good handball. His father probably ran with the ball, handpassed and then went and got it again - Tim had that capacity. He has a very good temperament and I think Tim always had a good temperament and Jobe has that too.
Tim Watson's thoughts on eldest son Jobe being drafted to the Bombers under the Father/Son rule:
Q. Would you want him to wear 32?
A. I think the comparisons will be made anyway but I think they will be more apparent if he has number 32 on his back. I actual think you make a number yours - you don't inherit a number, it becomes yours if you play long enough and you are consistent enough and good enough - and I would hope that for him.
Q. Did you ever put pressure on Jobe to play football?A. Jobe is his own person and it was always going to be his own choice to play footy. I have never put any pressure on him to play footy. He has set his own goals all the way through and he has been pretty hard on himself - which I think is a good thing and that will hold him in good stead on the way through. As he has seen through my career and coaching - he was reading the papers when I was coaching and he understood that it is not all ""beer and skittles"" this game - there is a tough side to it as well. So he has had a good grounding in the game.
Q. Did you ever have thoughts that he should go somewhere else, another club?
A. No. I would prefer he went somewhere where they had an experienced coach but Sheeds will do. I didn't really because I love the idea of father and son and I love the idea that he can come here and play and experience the Essendon Football Club, like I did as a 15 year old kid, right through until I was 32.
Q.How good is Jobe?
A. I don't know - that remains to be seen. I think Kevin (Sheedy) is right - he has a lot of improvement left in him, he is only a 17 year old kid that has a lot to learn about footy. He hasn't played a lot of footy because he has mainly played school footy and they don't play a lot of games in a season, so he has a lot of improvement left in him and hopefully he has the desire to go through.
Q. Will you swap stories about Sheeds?
A. He has heard most of them already. He is in good hands!
Q. Is it hard to believe that you were at the club at 15?
A. The only time I ever thought about it was when Jobe was 15 and I thought back and thought 15 is young. There is no way his mum would have let him leave home at 15.
Q. How does this make you feel Tim?
A. Old.
Q. What are your overriding emotions?
A. I am very proud. It is exciting for Jobe and it is a great journey, this football journey, that he is about to embark upon and nobody knows at this stage where it is going to end up. It is exciting for him and he has good perspective and he has had a great school life at Xavier College and he has loved his school and know he is going to move on. The football club will probably become what school was to him and I think that is great for his development.
