Ox: Dees fans won't trust trade of "shining light" Watts

Former Melbourne best and fairest winner David Schwarz says many Demon fans will not trust their decision to trade favourite son Jack Watts to Port Adelaide.

The 26-year-old was moved on after nine years and 153 games, in exchange for pick 31.

Schwarz said he does not trust the Dees list management and recruiting group, and feels fans are sick of the poor drafting and trading decisions.

“I don’t know. Not yet. They’re still unproven,” he said on SEN’s The Run Home.

“This is the point I think a lot of fans won’t put up with, they watch this cycle go through every three or four years and a new group comes in, and they’ll get one draft pick right, and it might be a Clayton Oliver, and they next four they stuff it up.

“I want to see an Adelaide, where Hamish Ogilvie has just picked gun after gun, after gun, yeah they’ve lost some out the going home factor.

“These fans, are saying the same thing. ‘We love to be able to trust you with this decision, but we’ve got so many wrong, so many’.

“It goes back well before Mark Neeld, through that whole period and we’ve stuffed it up.”

He said history shows Melbourne have made a mess of plenty of calls, which he believes has left a trail of destruction.

“I’ve been at the club and I’ve seen them piss James McDonald out the door, I’ve seen them do bad things time and time again, and what happens? - Three years later they’re out the door, and it leaves a ten year destruction, a trail of destruction out the back,” Schwarz said.

“I’m not saying the club are doing a bad job right now, but the history would say Melbourne haven’t got it right and continually get it wrong.”

Schwarz praised Watts for being a “shining light” in a period of struggle at the club.

“It’s hard to find players that your club as much as they (Melbourne fans) love him," he said.

“Jack Watts was loved by Melbourne people…he’s almost been a shining light for the last four or five years, when it’s been really dark.

“He’s at least somebody that we’ve been able to ride the bumps with.”