List Mgmt. Welcome Jake Waterman (Pick 77, 2016 National Draft)

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Woobla Stainz said:
Congrats to the Waterman!! Can't believe anyone would want to trade him. Now an AA, great clubman and a heart and soul player, hope his hard work and elite training standards rub off on some of the younger players.
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There are certain posters here that ridiculed people who saw his true worth when he was still a very good third tall forward. They still refuse to believe he won't hold the form. Was always going to be a good forward.Has all the tools always did.
 
Congrats to Waterman, I knew he had it in him. Before 2024 even in the games he's gone missing, the work rate was still there but wasn't playing in this optimal position with JK, Darling and Allen ahead of him. Puts up similar numbers to Curnow in poor team that struggles to get entries. He was way too good for the WAFL and now it started to click in 2024.

Imagine now if that 's fully fit and attacks the pre season harder, he plays in every game, the team improves in the midfield which he gets more supply plus clean entries and the armchair ride from the umps then he'll win the Coleman easily.
 

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Jake's emergence is huge for our rebuild. Our tall forwards are set with Allen, Waterman and some developing depth in J Williams and A Reid. In fact, sort out our Ruck and our talls are looking good around the ground.

Need to fix the midfield as a priority and get some good rebound off HB. Harley Reid is a big component of the midfield but we need to trade in some depth and nail another our R1 this year for another young gun.
 
plays tall 1 said:
Not bad for pick 77.

Should he be a co-captain? He’s certainly set a great example to the list.
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Hadn't thought about the captain thing until someone mentioned it on another thread

I love the idea. Hardest worker in the team and now one of our best 2 players.

Also, our 2 AAs came from pick 77 and a rookie pick. Can we get back to that sort of drafting please?
 


Good read

West Coast’s Jake Waterman — freshly fitted out for his first All-Australian blazer — is said to be the AFL’s most improved player.
True? Possibly. Waterman’s previous best season was 18 goals in 2022. He kicked 53 this year.

He is one of the great stories — a fringe player who fell seriously ill with ulcerative colitis last year and wasn’t even sure whether he would regain his health, let alone his football career, before unleashing on the AFL’s best defenders this season.

But there is another possibility.

Maybe Jake Waterman is the AFL star who has been hiding in plain sight.

Tony Micale, a revered WAFL coach who was also an AFL assistant coach of the year while at West Coast, was working on the WA talent development pathways when Waterman came through.

The thing that struck him was that while Waterman’s size didn’t necessarily indicate that he was going to be an AFL power forward — his best football did.

He had the traits. He could read the drop of the ball. He could get in the eyeline of teammates bringing the ball forward. He had great hands. He had issues with his goalkicking early but he sorted them out. And for a player of his size he traded weight and held ground against bigger and taller opponents very well.

Micale described Waterman’s success this year as something as simple as a “shifting of the magnets”.

That is, playing him where he played best.

And it has been the opportunity to play him where he plays best as much as anything that has seen him flourish.

West Coast had an embarrassment of riches when it came to tall forwards: All-time great Josh Kennedy, Jack Darling who has played the second most games for the club and kicked the second most games.

Oscar Allen couldn’t get a game as a forward until Kennedy retired at the end of 2022. Meanwhile Waterman was effectively behind all of them in the pecking order because at 191cm he was a power forward by nature, but perceived as something else by stature.

Back in the 2016 WAFL Colts season Waterman was the captain of Claremont.

The Tigers faced off against East Perth in the Grand Final.

Waterman, Sam Petrevski Seton, Bailey Banfield and Matt Guelfi were star performers for the Tigers. East Perth boasted Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell Pepper and Brisbane’s Brandon Starcevich.

It was a high quality game with the Royals bolting clear thanks to Powell Pepper’s early dominance, before Claremont stormed home, led by Waterman who had 20 disposals, took eight marks and booted 4.2.

It was the sort of performance that should have caught the eyes of AFL recruiters — but didn’t.

In the draft that year West Coast took Waterman as a father-son.

But they were able to do it with pick 77 because no club bothered to bid for him.

He just didn’t get noticed.

He was a “tweener”, smaller than tall forwards were supposed to be. He was identified more by the family name than his ability — even though the ability was there for all to see.

He was the son of Chris Waterman, dual premiership player at the Eagles. He was the younger brother of Alec Waterman who had been taken by West Coast a couple years prior.

“He was always laughing — a bit of a lad with a bit of cheekiness about him. There was nothing wrong with it. We embraced it,” Ross McQueen, who coached Claremont Colts that year, said.

“But he was talented and he was always really good for us just in the way he carried himself and played and trained. He was pretty popular. He didn’t get out in front of himself at all. He was a good kid.”

McQueen said the Tigers mucked around a bit with different roles for Waterman — at half back, on a wing, always with the notion that he might not be big enough to be an AFL power forward in mind. But they always came back to what Micale thought. He played his best footy as a target close to goal.

“I thought he had the traits to do it. He is not overly tall but he plays tall and at our level we thought he stood out a bit,” McQueen said.

“We tried him in different places – on half back and on a wing. But he was a natural forward.”

“He had a decent set of hands and players were drawn to him. Our group trusted him when the ball went forward. Some players just draw the ball and Jake always had that ability.”

“I always thought he had the traits to get to the level. He had things that made you think — he is a bit better than the next kid.”

McQueen said he was surprised when no club bid for Waterman as a father son but added: “Perhaps people couldn’t see what position he would play. They could make him run up and down the ground – which he does – but if he can find a way to embed himself deep – I think that is his greatest strength.”

“For us at Colts level he was always a really good key forward and a deep one. But if you translate that to the next level where guys are often 200cm tall. Jake is certainly not that.”

The talls are getting taller in the AFL and it may be that Western Bulldog Sam Darcy, at 208cm, is about to create a new standard on the right size for an AFL forward.

But there has always been a place for the person 190cm plus who can compete in the air, play on the ground and convert opportunities. That is Waterman.

t was great for him to have success this year and I am so happy for him. He is a ripping bloke. He had to see where he fitted,” McQueen said.

“If you play someone tall on him he can beat them on the ground and if you play someone smaller on him he beats them in the air. He is strong. He has worked really hard on the physical side of the game. But we always thought he was talented and he always found a way for us.”

He had played 16 games in 2018, a premiership year, as a teenager on the half forward flank. Allen, a very talented tall forward, played as a spare defender, a back up ruckman (a role Waterman also played at times) and an occasional tall forward. The pair were waiting for Kennedy and Darling to reach their use-by dates.

“They were all there at the same time and Jake just had to find a way,” McQueen said.
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Also this tweet embedded into the middle of the article looked familiar

IMG_5693.jpeg
 
SpaceClef said:
Should become our best ever F/S!
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Will Smith GIF by Complex
 

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Remeber when Richmond were annoyed that he ripped them apart, yadda yaddo who TF is this guy.
it wasn't just you guys xD
 
MeltMan said:
Remeber when Richmond were annoyed that he ripped them apart, yadda yaddo who TF is this guy.
it wasn't just you guys xD
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Yep, and after the Richmond game I had Fremantle fans telling me to enjoy it because he’s not doing that against their elite backline…
 
ShuepDogg said:
Yep, and after the Richmond game I had Fremantle fans telling me to enjoy it because he’s not doing that against their elite backline…
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that must have been a fun day at the office.
keep those recipts.
i suppose one of their backline made the AA squad as well
 
The best story of the year without a doubt. Came from so far back with career-threatening injuries and lack of opportunity. And then it all just clicked. Always thought he could be a good player because he leads hard at the ball carrier and works extremely hard up the ground. Didn't think his contested marking would improve so much, but when you have confidence everything falls into place. Awesome season and I'd love to see him win our B&F
 
Interesting podcast interview, lots of insights, said he learnt a lot from JK, Lecca and Cripps -skills and work ethic.
 
sharps24 said:
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Loved his honesty in this, especially the part about keeping perspective.

Seems like he knows that the pressure to perform will be higher next year and he’ll need to draw on the tough times to get the best out of himself again

Hope he stays an Eagle, Jake sounds like a great guy to have at the club.
 

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List Mgmt. Welcome Jake Waterman (Pick 77, 2016 National Draft)

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