Jack Watts

Jack Watts (born 26 March 1991) is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League (AFL).

A utility, 1.96 m tall and weighing 93 kg, Watts played in any position on the ground and has played for extended periods of time as a forward, defender, wingman, and back-up ruckman.

He was a talented sportsman at a young age, playing both basketball and Australian rules football.

In basketball, he represented Victoria and Australia, before giving up the sport to focus on football.

He was recognised as a gifted footballer at a young age when he represented Victoria at the under-12 level.

Watts was born to Janine and Andrew Watts on 26 March 1991 in Victoria, Australia.

He proved himself as an adept Australian rules footballer at a young age when he represented Victoria at the under-12 AFL carnival.

An equally talented basketball player, he represented both Victoria and Australia as a junior, earning a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

In 2007, he was rewarded with a second scholarship with the AIS, this time for football, as part of the eleventh intake of the AIS-AFL Academy.

He missed playing in the 2007 AFL under-16 championships for Victoria Metro and most of the basketball season after he broke his collarbone twice.

He went on to represent the state in the 2008 AFL Under 18 Championships as a bottom-aged player, where he won the Larke Medal as the best player in the championships and was named as the full-forward in the All-Australian team.

Watts' performances in the championships saw him recruited by the Melbourne Football Club with the first overall selection in the 2008 AFL draft at seventeen years of age, a year younger than most of his fellow draftees.

Despite attempting to play both basketball and football at an elite level, he ultimately gave up his basketball scholarship with the AIS in mid-2008 to focus on a football career; at the time, he was considered the best point guard for his age in Victoria and potentially the best in the country.

At seventeen years of age, Watts entered the 2008 season primarily playing school football with Brighton Grammar in the Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) competition, instead of under-18 level in the TAC Cup with the Sandringham Dragons.

He was completing year eleven and could choose to nominate for the AFL draft in either 2008 or 2009; touted as a likely early draft pick despite being a year younger than most of his fellow draft prospects, he spent the majority of the season undecided on whether he would nominate for the 2008 draft.

For the first half of the season, Western Australian, Nic Naitanui was considered the likely number-one draft pick; however, after Watts received mid-year state honours representing Victoria Metro at the 2008 AFL Under 18 Championships, he established himself during the championships as one of the "best young talents in the country".

The first round match of the championships against Victoria Country saw him take a pack mark with seconds left in the game and kick the winning goal, his fourth of the match; his resolve led to one recruiter stating "If the draft was on tomorrow and I had the first pick, I'd be choosing him ... without hesitation. He's just a natural player, he's an athlete and he's a very strong competitor."

He was rewarded with the Larke Medal as the best player in division one of the championships and was named the full-forward in the All-Australian team after he kicked fifteen goals during the championships.

Watts announced in October that he would nominate for the 2008 draft, with he, Naitanui and another West Australian, Daniel Rich, touted as the most likely players to be recruited with the first selection in the 2008 AFL draft.

He furthered his claim as the potential number one pick when he recorded the second fastest time by a non-Indigenous player in the twenty metre sprint with 2.82 seconds at the AFL draft camp, in addition to placing second in the agility test, fifth in the standing vertical jump and seventh in the repeated sprints.

His rise during the year saw The Age journalist, Emma Quayle, describe him as the "most complete prospect in [the] draft, he has all the athletic qualities you could want in a key forward—he's quick, agile, he's a good kick and he can mark".

In the weeks leading up to the draft, it was widely accepted by the media that he would be the first pick in the draft.

Watts was recruited by the Melbourne Football Club with the first overall selection in the 2008 national draft.

The hype surrounding Watts in his first season was profound until he made his debut in the Queen's Birthday clash against Collingwood in the 2009 season.

The management of his debut has led to long-term criticism of the club because he was played despite being unready for senior football.

Instead, Watts was used as a promotional tool to create a sense of hope for long-suffering fans.

Criticism has followed Watts closely throughout his career due to the expectations that were placed on him being the number one draft pick and many believing he was not living up to his potential.

Despite the criticism that has followed Watts, he has maintained a spot in the senior side throughout his career and has played over 170 matches.

He did, however, state that he would remain in Victoria in 2009 to complete year twelve at Brighton Grammar even if he was recruited by an interstate team.

Drafted at seventeen years of age, he was in the last draft where a player could be recruited at seventeen, with the AFL requiring that, effective from the 2009 AFL draft, a player must turn at least eighteen years of age in the year they are drafted.

The hype placed on him by the club was high when he was presented with the number four guernsey by six-time Melbourne premiership player, Ron Barassi—a guernsey number previously worn by club legend and the winner of ten premierships with the club as a player and coach, Norm Smith—in a ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) two days after being drafted.

Completing year twelve in 2009, the need to manage school with football saw the club electing to not play him in pre-season matches during the NAB Cup.

Watts played his first match for the year in the Victorian Football League (VFL) reserves for Melbourne's affiliate team, the Casey Scorpions, in the middle of April; against, he recorded twenty disposals and a goal.

Spending two weeks in the VFL reserves, he was promoted to the VFL seniors for the forty-two point win against where he recorded sixteen disposals and three goals.

A bye in the VFL a week later allowed him to return to APS football, playing for Brighton Grammar; a rare occurrence of an AFL-listed player playing school football, he kicked three goals in a draw against Melbourne Grammar.

He spent the next three weeks in the VFL, where he recorded twenty-two and twenty-three disposals in the second and third week respectively, which saw him earn a spot in the AFL side for the annual Queen's Birthday clash against at the MCG in round eleven.

With the Queen's Birthday match marketed as the club's biggest match during the year, then-senior coach, Dean Bailey, promoted the debut of Watts by imploring fans to come along so they "will look back at this time in three, four or five years to see where it all began and to be able to say I was there the day Jack Watts made his debut".

Furthermore, he has featured in the top ten of Melbourne's best and fairest count three times, including finishing fifth in the 2016 count.

Drafted as a forward and playing the majority of his career in the forward line, he has kicked over 160 goals, including a career-high season in 2016, in which he kicked thirty-eight goals.

Although he has played a majority of his career in the forward line, he has been praised for his versatility which allows him to play in multiple positions on the ground.