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The Essendon Football Club should allow Jobe Watson to join a rival club, given his honourable service throughout the club’s darkest years.
Watson deserves to play out the twilight of his career in a comparatively harmonic environment, an environment which Essendon cannot offer him due to the seemingly everlasting drug scandal that the club has had to endure.
Watson has had to burden the scandal on behalf of the players.
The ever-resilient Watson, who will be 31 by the beginning of next season, would slot into any elite AFL club’s midfield comfortably.
He is arguably the greatest AFL captain of the modern era given what he has led his troops through these past few years. And while it would be difficult for Essendon fans to see Watson wearing the blue and gold of West Coast, or the orange and charcoal of Greater Western Sydney, it would also be bittersweet.
Watson deserves such an opportunity.
It is of course possible that Watson does not want to leave his football club, a decision which should be equally embraced. Given his legendary status, seeing out the rest of his career in red and black would immortalise him in the souls of the Essendon faithful. However, the club champion also deserves the chance at the AFL’s ultimate prize – the premiership cup.
Even simply venturing deep into a competitive finals series must be something the current Essendon captain desires. The prospect of a preliminary final against Hawthorn at the MCG on a Friday night gets every fan excited, you can only imagine how a player must feel.
This is an opportunity that Essendon have never afforded him, and will likely not be able to before he retires.
Unfortunately for Watson, apart from the individual pinnacle of winning the Brownlow Medal in 2012 and three Essendon best and fairest awards, his career has been somewhat tragic given the lack of team success he has enjoyed.
Only once in Watson’s career spanning thirteen seasons has Essendon made a semi-final, back in 2004, when they were outdone by a Geelong on the brink of a dynasty.
Watson, undeservingly, has been involved in one of the darkest decades of the Essendon Football Club.
The potential move doesn’t only make sense for Watson, but for any club that is in, or about to enter their premiership window. Watson has an undoubted ability to dominate the midfield (averaging roughly 25 possessions per game throughout his career), he has the greatest leadership qualities of any player in the AFL, and the desire for team success still burns within him.
Watson would not necessarily demand a high salary, given the mental relief a new club would bring, as well as his existing wealth and high potential for future earnings.
Furthermore, such a movement also makes sense for the Essendon Football Club as the club needs to begin looking at rebuilding. Trading Watson would free up considerable salary cap room, and the club would likely get a first round pick, or even a future pick (or combination of both), given the AFL’s new policy to allow the trading of future draft picks.
This new policy makes the whole process much simpler and realistic.
When coupling the above with Jake Carlisle’s seemingly inevitable departure from Essendon, which would almost certainly result in a first round compensation pick, as well as the club’s existing early draft pick due to their ladder position, all of the sudden Essendon would find themselves in a reasonable position heading into the future.
A club can do a lot of good with three first round draft picks.
Of course there is major upside for Essendon in retaining Watson. He is a club hero and an elite footballer, he also attracts members and unites the team on all fronts. The positives in keeping Watson outweigh allowing him to leave. But the club should give Watson the opportunity to do as he wishes to fulfil his best interests.
It may be that Watson does not want to leave his beloved Dons, but if he does, the club and supporters need to be accepting of his decision. Champion players deserve to play in the biggest games, in front of the biggest crowds and fight for the biggest prize.
Watson does not owe the Essendon Football Club a thing, and sometimes, when you cannot offer someone happiness, you need to let them go and find happiness elsewhere.
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