Toast Watson, Blight & Watters - the positives

Remove this Banner Ad

Watters apparently now in training for the javelin event at the Masters Games 👍🏻

reNLwnl.gif
aren't his arms too short
 
Blight's appointment at least started some momentum for the place. Ron Joseph (?) getting Gehrig,
Hammil, Lawrence and Capuano. I think the Blight appointment helped get these guys to decide to
come across. There was a positive vibe at the club there hadn't been for a long time. Blight himself
didn't work out but we started to improve from this time for a few years.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Some dark times after Stan Alves, huh. It wasn't Timmy's fault - he didn't know he wasn't ready to come straight in at the top. We should have. I admire that he acknowledges it didn't work. The Blight thing seemed nuts straight away, but going for a coach who has a proven record of taking teams right to the GF or Premiership? -- that's in again and you can sure see the appeal.
 
I knew a few of the younger players under Watters.

They never had an issue with him.

The trouble was the RTB core. He wanted them gone and they him. Ultimately he was never going to win out over Rooey/Joey etc.

Watters wanted a complete rebuild. Ground up. Like Hawthorn are doing today.
 
I knew a few of the younger players under Watters.

They never had an issue with him.

The trouble was the RTB core. He wanted them gone and they him. Ultimately he was never going to win out over Rooey/Joey etc.

Watters wanted a complete rebuild. Ground up. Like Hawthorn are doing today.


It probably ended up being a worst of both worlds situation. It probably would have been a disaster due to timing with GWS and GC combining in and Pelchen was useless.
 
But seriously, I don't know what you mean by most popular? Least popular? Everyone hated them all.

Watson completely out of his depth, the club thought a great player would automatically transition to a great coach. He offered nothing and we shouldn't have ever sacked Alves. We were too quick to move on back then, and I believe Alves would've helped rebuild the club had he stayed. No highlights.

Blight took the deal for the money and worked part time, working on his handicap during the week instead of rebuilding the club after we stuffed up the Watson appointment. Blight should never have been hired, his heart wasn't in it and we shouldn't have been so desperate. Nothing from his tenure stands out, it was GT who began to develop the high end talent we had on the list in those years.

Watters has to be worst appointment we've ever made. I laugh when some defend him. He came in and ripped the heart and soul from the club. I remember Rooey or Dal talking about how in his first few weeks in the club he ripped down the accomplishments of the club in 2009 and 2010 and stressed that we were celebrating a losing culture LOL. Treated our champions like dirt, moved them on aggressively, and thought he could overrule the people above him. Went on radio the day he was sacked and said how safe his job was, etc. Infamous interview to say the least as he was sacked hours later. Worst thing we did was hiring him, best thing we did was firing him. An absolute cancer on our club that took us 11 years to recover from (and 2023 is still too early to tell, but looks like we've finally settled). Absolutely tone-deaf to dealing with people and the young kids on our list, so it makes me piss that he's set up his own consultancy firm working with youth and leadership.

Watters famously was introducing Ashley Prescott as our new assistant (that he had unilaterally appointed without telling anyone) at the exact time the board was meeting to give him the arse.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Watters famously was introducing Ashley Prescott as our new assistant (that he had unilaterally appointed without telling anyone) at the exact time the board was meeting to give him the arse.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Bit of Napoelon complex going on I believe. Our club was a mess back then, surprised we managed to get to a couple of GFs just before that.
 
Because of Watters CJ got in trouble for the whole “dwarf burning” brouhaha talk about a mountain out of a molehill
Jones set a man's costume on fire because he was a drunk and has about 10 brain cells. What would have happened had the guy been seriously injured? Watter's was a shit coach for sure but making the group accountable for that kind of behaviour was absolutely the right thing to do.
 
Watters famously was introducing Ashley Prescott as our new assistant (that he had unilaterally appointed without telling anyone) at the exact time the board was meeting to give him the arse.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

this was preceding that meeting, but you are correct, he had him tour the facilities and told people he was the new assistant. only for the club or those running it to be WTF!

i suspect this was down to a breakdown in communication between pelchen and watters (both hated each other and stopped talking).

but tbh if your boss was pelchen... fmd. something we ended up working out too and moving on.

we were a mess then. our president who was in charge of the financial audit basically told the AFL we were all good... only to turn around a month later and require immediate cash cause we couldnt pay anyone.
 
this was preceding that meeting, but you are correct, he had him tour the facilities and told people he was the new assistant. only for the club or those running it to be WTF!

i suspect this was down to a breakdown in communication between pelchen and watters (both hated each other and stopped talking).

but tbh if your boss was pelchen... fmd. something we ended up working out too and moving on.

we were a mess then. our president who was in charge of the financial audit basically told the AFL we were all good... only to turn around a month later and require immediate cash cause we couldnt pay anyone.


He went on SEN after the club told him to go to ground too. Blind sided the club. He was a weird unit. He was watching his kid play footy on game day about an hour before the game started. I was ready to shove him in the car and drive him there. He had an unfortunate personality.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

He went on SEN after the club told him to go to ground too. Blind sided the club. He was a weird unit. He was watching his kid play footy on game day about an hour before the game started. I was ready to shove him in the car and drive him there. He had an unfortunate personality.

thats right... i think that was during the meeting the board was discussing his removal. i think he called up SEN.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Toast Watson, Blight & Watters - the positives

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top