Essendon Captain Jobe Watson is in line for his 200th AFL game this Sunday against St Kilda.
The Bombers midfielder arrived at the club as the son of a legend.
His father, Tim, played 307 games for the Bombers, including three premierships.
Watson Senior made his debut at 15 and was a Best and Fairest winner by the time he was 19.
The start to Jobe’s career wasn’t as smooth.
“He had a fair bit of work to do,” former teammate and Captain Matthew Lloyd said.
“He was carrying a bit of excess baggage that he didn’t need to carry and as a result he could just never get consistency on the training track because he was breaking down time and time again.
“He had an ability to find the footy but just not find it enough because he probably wasn’t as physically fit as he needed to be.”
Watson played sporadically throughout the early years of his career.
After making his debut in 2003, it took until the 2006 and 2007 seasons for him to string regular games together.
But at the end of the 2007, Watson was faltering and he was left out of side for the match against West Coast that would be James Hird’s final match as a player and Kevin Sheedy’s last as coach.
“A light bulb went off with him,” Lloyd said.
Watson commenced extra work with a boxing coach and also spent time with former Carlton and Sydney midfielder Greg Williams.
“I think he just realised I’ve got to make a fist of this career that I’ve got.
“He came back in that pre-season and automatically you thought we’ve got a pretty special player on our hands.”
From there, Watson’s career took on a whole new shape.
He won the first of three Best and Fairest awards in 2009 and was appointed Captain the following season.
“In a perfect world he wanted to have one more year as a player and he would have liked me to play in 2010,” Lloyd said.
“But as it was, my time was up. He was no doubt the clear person that Matthew Knights identified and the playing group identified.
“It’s great that he got it at an age that he did because I think he’s really influenced the group on how to train, how to prepare because he learnt the hard way.”
In 2012, Watson averaged 29 disposals a game and kicked 20 goals on his way to a Brownlow medal and All-Australian selection.
Since that year, Watson has led Essendon through some of its most trying times.
His resilience, honesty and dignity have elevated him to one of the best leaders in the competition.
“He comes from a great family,” Lloyd said.
“He’s got great ethics, morals … in a sense it surprised me it took Jobe as long as it did because he’s such an intelligent person.
“He’s been remarkable in terms of the way he’s led this group and the boys absolutely admire him for the Captain and the friend that he’s been.
“He’s no longer the son of Tim Watson, he’s Jobe Watson the Brownlow medallist and multiple Best and Fairest winner.”
