Watts The Odds? Two Mates Revel In The Sharing Of An Afl Dream
The Sunday Age
30 November 2008
EMMA QUAYLE
MORE than 10 years after joining forces in their local Sandringham basketball teams, Jack Watts and Tom Lynch yesterday gave each other a big bear hug, then went their separate sporting ways.
While Watts arrived at yesterday's national AFL draft knowing Melbourne would select him with the No. 1 pick, Lynch sat nervously in the crowd wondering which club would call his name. By the end of the first round, Watts was clad in a red and blue shirt, conducting his first interviews as a Demon; Lynch was in the red, black and white of St Kilda, coming to grips with the thought that next week he would train with the team he has supported all his life.Watts, whose mind was eased on Friday night when a "gang" of Melbourne officials knocked on his front door in Sandringham, said his big day was made more special by the thought that Lynch, his good mate since they met on the basketball court as seven-year-olds, had a new home too."We've been friends for a pretty long time and I'm just really rapt that he'll get to play for his favourite team and to think that we both could be playing football for an AFL team next year," said the 17-year-old.Nick Naitanui - the big-leaping ruckman of Fijian heritage - was West Coast's pick at No. 2, while Fremantle opted for another local, Stephen Hill, at No. 3.Only four players discarded by AFL clubs - Tom Hislop, Jason Davenport, Colm Begley and Leigh Brown - were given a fresh start. As expected, no club called out the name of fallen star Ben Cousins, and the 2005 Brownlow medallist's chances of restarting his career appear lost.Watts, who will finish year 12 at Brighton Grammar next year, said he had no expectations of what he might achieve and was simply looking forward to working as hard as he could throughout summer training. His coach, Dean Bailey, expected him to do that, and much more."Although the No.1 pick is a huge responsibility for Jack, he'll carry it," Bailey said. "He's a very mature young man and he thrives on that sort of challenge."
