Tim Watson

For the American football player, see Tim Watson (American football). For the Australian musician, see Tim Watson (musician).

Tim Watson
Personal information
Full name	Timothy Michael Watson
Date of birth	(1961-07-13) 13 July 1961
Place of birth	Dimboola, Victoria
Original team(s)	Dimboola
Height/Weight	185 cm / 96 kg
Position(s)	Half forward flank, ruck-rover
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1977–91; 1993–94 1992	Essendon West Coast	307 (335) 0 (0)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1980–1991	Victoria	? (?)
Coaching career3
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
1999–2000	St Kilda	44 (12–31–1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1994 season. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 1985. 3 Coaching statistics correct as of 2000.
Career highlights
3× VFL/AFL Premiership: 1984, 1985, 1993 VFLPA MVP (Leigh Matthews Trophy): 1989 4× Essendon Best & Fairest: 1980, 1985, 1988, 1989 VFL Team of the Year: 1989 Essendon captain: 1989–1991 AFC Night Series Premiership 1981, 1984 Australian Football Hall of Fame Essendon Team of the Century (Ruck Rover) Champions of Essendon: #6

Timothy Michael "Tim" Watson (born 13 July 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, sports journalist and media personality.

Watson is notable for his long career at the Essendon Football Club as a player where he participated in several premiership teams. He was the fourth youngest player ever to play in the VFL/AFL competition and made a comeback after retirement which included another premiership.

Tim is a prominent and popular sports journalist and media personality. On television he regularly appears on the Seven Network, where he does sports reports for the Melbourne news and has a special comments role on the station's Australian Football League (AFL) football coverage.

Football career

Early career

Watson made his VFL debut in 1977 for Essendon at the age of fifteen years and 305 days, the fourth youngest player in the history of the League.

Tim won the Essendon best-and-fairest award four times (1980, 1985, 1988 and 1989). In 1989, he won the AFL Players Association MVP award, now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy.

Watson played the ruck-rover in Essendon's 1984 and 1985 grand final victories. He was made captain in 1989 and held that position until 1991, before retiring from the game due to the injury problems that had plagued the later part of his career. In the 1992 pre-season draft, Watson was recruited by the West Coast Eagles even though he had signalled his intention to retire. He never played a game for the club, instead continuing a commentary role with the Seven Network for 1992.

Comeback

Early in the 1993 season Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy lured Watson out of retirement. Although Watson was not as fit as he had once been, and was never able to recapture his top form, he played a vital role in the forward line, kicking some important goals throughout the year. His experience in what was a very young team was instrumental in helping Essendon win an unexpected premiership that year.

After the 1994 season, Watson retired for good, having played 307 games and kicked 335 goals. Since his retirement, Watson was named the sixth greatest player to ever play for Essendon in the "Champions of Essendon" list, and was named ruck-rover in their "Team of the Century".

Coaching career

Watson was the coach of the St Kilda Football Club in 1999 and 2000, his success was limited, with the side winning only 12 of the 44 matches they played while he was in charge. In the 2000 season St Kilda won just two games for the entire season and Watson resigned during the year, forgoing the final year of his three-year contract.

Statistics

Playing statistics

†	Denotes seasons in which Watson won an AFL Premiership

Season	Team	#	Games	G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
			Totals								Averages (per game)
1977	Essendon	32	16	16	10	136	69	205	36	—	1.0	0.7	8.5	4.3	12.8	2.3	—
1978	Essendon	32	19	11	8	162	94	256	40	—	0.6	0.4	8.5	4.9	13.5	2.1	—
1979	Essendon	32	23	34	27	223	111	334	82	—	1.5	1.2	9.7	4.8	14.5	3.6	—
1980	Essendon	32	22	42	25	337	199	536	94	—	1.9	1.1	15.3	9.0	24.4	4.3	—
1981	Essendon	32	17	15	21	246	111	357	52	—	0.9	1.2	14.5	6.5	21.0	3.1	—
1982	Essendon	32	22	24	31	384	153	537	85	—	1.1	1.4	17.5	7.0	24.4	3.9	—
1983	Essendon	32	26	27	20	442	171	613	115	—	1.0	0.8	17.0	6.6	23.6	4.4	—
1984†	Essendon	32	22	25	22	327	142	469	118	—	1.1	1.0	14.9	6.5	21.3	5.4	—
1985†	Essendon	32	24	27	25	352	183	535	99	—	1.1	1.0	14.7	7.6	22.3	4.1	—
1986	Essendon	32	3	0	2	40	26	66	6	—	0.0	0.7	13.3	8.7	22.0	2.0	—
1987	Essendon	32	7	5	8	84	29	113	18	13	0.7	1.1	12.0	4.1	16.1	2.6	1.9
1988	Essendon	32	19	24	17	300	136	436	92	22	1.3	0.9	15.8	7.2	22.9	4.8	1.2
1989	Essendon	32	24	23	15	334	205	539	99	39	1.0	0.6	13.9	8.5	22.5	4.1	1.6
1990	Essendon	32	21	19	21	262	156	418	93	26	0.9	1.0	12.5	7.4	19.9	4.4	1.2
1991	Essendon	32	17	15	13	192	139	331	65	13	0.9	0.8	11.3	8.2	19.5	3.8	0.8
1992	West Coast	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
1993†	Essendon	32	16	26	11	154	101	255	58	26	1.6	0.7	9.6	6.3	15.9	3.6	1.6
1994	Essendon	32	9	2	0	65	35	100	24	12	0.2	0.0	7.2	3.9	11.1	2.7	1.3
Career			307	335	276	4040	2060	6100	1176	151	1.1	0.9	13.2	6.7	19.9	3.8	1.3

Coaching statistics

Season	Team	Games Coached	Wins	Losses	Draws	Points %	Ladder Position	League Teams
1999	St Kilda	22	10	12	0	45.5%	10	16
2000	St Kilda	22	2	19	1	11.4%	16	16
Career totals		44	12	31	1	28.41%	13.0	16.0

Media career

Like many past players, Watson has become a media personality, serving as a sports presenter on Seven News in Melbourne as well as having a special comments role on Seven's AFL coverage. He has also appeared on many football-related TV shows, as a sports columnist in The Age newspaper, and from 2004 until 2013, a co-host on the Morning Glory show with Andrew Maher, on Melbourne radio station 1116 SEN. In November 2013, Watson resigned from 1116 SEN to spend more time at the Seven Network, it was later announced that he would replace Sandy Roberts as weeknight sport presenter on Seven News in Melbourne.

Personal life

During the late 1970s, Watson's older brother Larry also played at Essendon as well as Fitzroy before moving to Adelaide to play with West Adelaide in 1981, going on to win the SANFL premiership with Wests in 1983.

In 1993 Tim was named 'Victorian Father of the Year'. In the 2002 National Draft, his son, Jobe Watson, was drafted by Essendon under the father-son rule. Tim and Jobe were both coached by the same man, Kevin Sheedy.

External links

• Tim Watson – Champions of Essendon
• Tim Watson – SEN profile
• Tim Watson – Saxton Speakers Bureau
• Tim Watson – 7news profile

Media offices
Preceded by unknown	Seven News Melbourne Weekend Sport Presenter October 2000 – November 2013	Succeeded by Sean Sowerby
Preceded by Unknown Sandy Roberts	Seven News Melbourne Weeknight Sport Presenter 1994-1998 November 2013 –	Succeeded by Jim Wilson incumbent