Watson Continues To Emerge As Rising Defensive Star

TOBE Watson burst onto the scene as part of Swan Districts' back-line last season and impressed so much he was a lock to play in the WAFL finals series and now even be handed the famous No. 11 jumper for 2018 as he continues to emerge as one of the competition's brightest young prospects.

After developing nicely at colts and reserves level with Swan Districts having made the move from Bunbury to attend Guildford Grammar, and then remain in Perth, Watson broke into the Swans league side in Round 22 last year and has never looked back.

He played those last two games of the home and away season against Claremont and East Fremantle before holding his place for the finals which was highlighted by the elimination final win against West Perth at Steel Blue Oval.

Watson was outstanding that day and only continued to grow over summer making him a lock to be in the league line-up to start the 2018 season under new coach Adam Pickering and wearing the famous No. 11 jumper vacated by the legend Tallan Ames following his 263-game career.

The 20-year-old's opening to the season has been outstanding fitting right into the defence that includes Tony Notte, Alex Howard, Kirk Ugle, Laurence Grescos, Ben Holman and Brayden Hackett with Swans starting with two strong wins before last Saturday's loss to Subiaco.

Watson would like to see himself be the type of defender who is good in the air and at ground level, and equally adapt at shutting down an opponent as setting up play coming out of the back-line as well.

And based on his first seven appearances at league level, he's well on his way to accomplishing that.

"I have looked up to guys like Tony Notte obviously who has been a bit of a mentor of mine in the back-line," Watson told 91.3 SportFM.

"He is really good at that coming across the front of the pack as a third man type tall who takes really good defensive marks. So I'd like to be able to do that but I also back in my leg speed and kicking ability. I want to play as a marking tall backman who can run and use it off half-back as well."

Looking back on last year, Watson can still barely believe that he got the chance to play in a WAFL finals series so early in his career, especially in such a day to savour like that elimination final at Bassendean to celebrate Tony Notte's 200th game and Tallan Ames' last home appearance.

And then looking forward, Watson sees no reason why if he keeps tracking how he is, there isn’t the possibility he could achieve his dream of finding his way onto an AFL list.

"It was amazing to play finals last year. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, it was awesome just to run out there with the boys. It was Tony's 200th game as well so that was a pretty special moment for me and something I'll never forget," he said.

"I'm still a young player trying to learn the game in a way but obviously every boy has his ambitions to play at the top level and that's still my ambition at the moment. I'm just doing everything I can to push my claims and if it happens, it happens. I'll just focus on playing the best footy that I can."

Swan Districts made a tremendous start to the season with wins against Perth and Peel Thunder to set up a top-of-the-table clash last Saturday with the also undefeated Subiaco at Leederville Oval.

Swans came out and started well with the opening two goals and last two goals of the first term to lead by quarter-time. But from there it was a day to forget with Subiaco romping to the 96-point victory.

While losing by such a margin is never fun, Watson and his Swan Districts team have tried to pluck the positives out of what they learned from seeing Subiaco in full flight and have kept their eye on the bigger picture of the start to the season.

"They're a very impressive outfit. They just look like they've been been playing together for a number of years and they've built a nice culture there like what we are trying to do at Swan Districts," Watson said.

"In a way it was a big loss for us, but there' s a lot of positives to come out of it. That's the kind of culture and that's the team that we want to be in 2018.

"Obviously it's a really tough loss for the group and after the game everyone was a little bit down because it's not ideal to lose by that sort of margin.

"But Adam Pickering was really good about it and has gone through it with everyone and said it was a loss, but the great thing about footy is that you've always got next week.

"We are still 2-1 and second on the ladder so we're not looking bad at all. There's always room for improvement and we're just looking to next week now."