Welcome Welcome to Hawthorn : Nick 'the Wizard' Watson!

[MrPremiership]

Let’s hope it’s just first year yips.

But was probably expecting he’d be a low possession sharpshooter at afl level. But he’s getting a decent amount of the ball (which is a good thing) but not executing (a composure issue?)

definitely composure

The main big misses I recall are last weeks' dribbler and the one from the goal square against Cats that went out on the fool

Both instances he had more time and could have run in or steadied....then nailed the shot. That will come with time.

He's played 4 games

 

[Bardo State]

What people tend to get wrong about Cyril comparisons is they only make them if someone emulates his attacking side of the game. Clean pickups, freak marks, agility with the ball, goal sense. Almost all of the comparisons fall down on how elite Cyril was defensively.

Watson is generating clean pickup, one touch scoring chances for fun and now seeing the reward for using his agility and anticipation without the ball. There are signs...

 

[kazzooka]

Pick 5 expectations are high no matter the position. For every late bargain small forward there are truck loads of misses.
I’ll put it to you like this though - how many small forwards have absolutely dominated U/18s like the wiz. Ask Carlton supporters how their hunt for a quality small forward is going

There's also a clear reason why he immediately was ahead of bennetts, o'sullivan and butler who have had longer to crack in.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Just checking in. Is this where I go to cast doubt on the 19 year old kid who has played 4 games total because his accuracy isn't at elite levels yet? Awesome!

 

[Billyc]

Doing the hard things well. The easy things - like slotting a goal from the tip of the square - will come. He's just nervous.

 

[TazHawk15]

I hope the coaches go through his game and remind him that on a few occasions he has much more time than he thinks.
If Sic had have given off a half decent handball the kid would have just had to stroll into an open goal.
It was a s**t miss but it was also a s**t handball.

 

[Lawsy]

He is going to be a good player but he was taken at Pick 5, which means expectation he becomes one of the better small forwards historically.

Some of the best small forwards in today's game were late picks / rookies (papley, breust to name a few).

I want to be wrong, but I still think we reached at Pick 5 and take a pretty high risk. Ot could work out for sure, but doesn't change the fact it was a risky pick and expectations are accordingly high.

Every pick in the top 5 comes with the expectation that they will be one of the better players historically, in whichever role they play.

You're calling him out, and the recruitment team, after 4 games. Give him a chance to build some cohesion with his teammates first and find his stride before writing him off as a reach (which you've implied before then sitting on the fence)

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

What people tend to get wrong about Cyril comparisons is they only make them if someone emulates his attacking side of the game. Clean pickups, freak marks, agility with the ball, goal sense. Almost all of the comparisons fall down on how elite Cyril was defensively.

Watson is generating clean pickup, one touch scoring chances for fun and now seeing the reward for using his agility and anticipation without the ball. There are signs...

IMO there has NEVER been another player close to Cyril defensively. It's an impossible standard.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Loved him launching himself into a marking contest with Naughton, it was really courageous stuff. He has nads of steel.

 

[marklar]

IMO there has NEVER been another player close to Cyril defensively. It's an impossible standard.

Watson's defensive instincts are excellent, he's taking on blokes much bigger than himself and making an impact. Watch his positioning in the last few minutes of the game on Sunday when we were locking the ball into contest after contest.

His lick of the icecream will come soon enough.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

the thing is at Watson's size he's literally always gonna be taking on blokes bigger than him. however, he was crashing into contests with blokes much larger than your average small defender and still halving them. that really stood out to me vs the doggies. he manages to impact and halve so many contests that you wouldn't expect of a small fwd at any height.

very impressed with how involved he is, given he's playing as a small fwd in one of the worst teams in the comp

 

[HawthornHawk]

Just checking in. Is this where I go to cast doubt on the 19 year old kid who has played 4 games total because his accuracy isn't at elite levels yet? Awesome!

I think it's reasonable to question his finishing in front of goal considering it was also an issue for him as a junior.

 

[Jables]

What people tend to get wrong about Cyril comparisons is they only make them if someone emulates his attacking side of the game. Clean pickups, freak marks, agility with the ball, goal sense. Almost all of the comparisons fall down on how elite Cyril was defensively.

Watson is generating clean pickup, one touch scoring chances for fun and now seeing the reward for using his agility and anticipation without the ball. There are signs...

The Cyril comparisons are always ignorant because they are just general small forward stuff a lot of elite talents have, it's not even just the defensive ability, he's an overall package that doesn't actually fit a traditional role perfectly. Any comparison will always be wrong because he is incomparable, someone in their Cyril is overrated spiel once asked me why Cyril was better than Breust who does everything (during the threepeat).

Well one is Cyril and the other isn't, and Breust is my favourite player.

As to Nick Watson, questioning their finishing feels so silly. Kid is 19, remember Roughead's kicking in his early years? Could mark it in the goalsquare and you'd write it off as a behind sometimes, you just knew. It's 99% pressure and learning to deal with it.

 

[Brishawk]

I was not on team wiz pre-draft (had a couple ahead of him) but i dont understand why people are jumping at shadows about this kid. Has had a ton of shots and has been active defensively. Could do with some more composure but im sure that will come in time. Patience required.

 

[jenniferHAWKinS]

Loving his defensive work rate, even better than I expected. The offensive brilliance will fall into place quickly!

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I think it's reasonable to question his finishing in front of goal considering it was also an issue for him as a junior.

It's 4 games into his senior career - maybe if it persists around game 40 you have a point.

 

[cryptor]

I was not on team wiz pre-draft (had a couple ahead of him) but i dont understand why people are jumping at shadows about this kid. Has had a ton of shots and has been active defensively. Could do with some more composure but im sure that will come in time. Patience required.

Nailed it. He’s literally excelling at the very hardest parts of his role and just letting himself down with his finishing.

As Hodge said on SEN last night, there’s no concerns there. He’s clearly highly talented and plays a lot on instinct. He’s a handful of games into AFL and still adjusting.

He’ll start kicking them soon enough and won’t look back. Then it will just be a funny little oddity to the start of the career of a highly potent small forward.

 

[TheFourPillars]

I think it's reasonable to question his finishing in front of goal considering it was also an issue for him as a junior.

nick kicked some amazing goals as a junior. He nearly kicked one on the boundary

 

[Judd2Sewell]

I was not on team wiz pre-draft (had a couple ahead of him) but i dont understand why people are jumping at shadows about this kid. Has had a ton of shots and has been active defensively. Could do with some more composure but im sure that will come in time. Patience required.

You can only laugh at the conversion rate at this point. There is no way he doesn't turn it around.

We have already seen moments of excitement and brilliance (eg the lighting pickup on the boundary, etc) that most other players cannot do.

But more importantly we have seen a real endeavour, competitiveness and a willingness to do the defensive acts - these are the things that were the biggest question marks for mine. How would his size allow him to make impact plays defensively? Well he has been answering that.

 

[I got the outside word]

You can only laugh at the conversion rate at this point. There is no way he doesn't turn it around.

We have already seen moments of excitement and brilliance (eg the lighting pickup on the boundary, etc) that most other players cannot do.

But more importantly we have seen a real endeavour, competitiveness and a willingness to do the defensive acts - these are the things that were the biggest question marks for mine. How would his size allow him to make impact plays defensively? Well he has been answering that.

Because he is so small and has a big leap he just cannonballs into bigger opponents, but because he is such a good reader of the ball too he does it legally. We saw it on the weekend and then the run down on Jones.

 

[peetoo]

IMO there has NEVER been another player close to Cyril defensively. It's an impossible standard.

If there was, it was Poppy

 

[kirbatron]

Sicily should have gone off at himself first for the lousy handpass. Wiz had to break stride to collect it.

Sic said after the game that had he known it was the Wiz streaming past he would have lowered the hb & it would have hit him on the chest

 

[tommyk72]

He'll be kicking straight by the time we're in contention.

 

[The Chad and I]

Just checking in. Is this where I go to cast doubt on the 19 year old kid who has played 4 games total because his accuracy isn't at elite levels yet? Awesome!

As if saying "he needs to convert" is any kind of insight.
Yeah, we know.

I was not on team wiz pre-draft (had a couple ahead of him) but i dont understand why people are jumping at shadows about this kid. Has had a ton of shots and has been active defensively. Could do with some more composure but im sure that will come in time. Patience required.

Same.
I wanted Duursma or Curtin, but very happy with Watson and his performances.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

He'll be kicking straight by the time we're in contention.

We'll be in contention by the time he's kicking straight.