Photo courtesy Essendon Football Club
Alec Waterman secured an AFL lifeline when he signed a one-year deal with Essendon this week.
The 24-year-old impressed with a four-goal haul in last week’s scratch match against Carlton which resulted in an AFL contract with the Bombers.
Waterman had previously spent time on West Coast’s list before he was struck down by adrenal fatigue.
His father, dual premiership Eagle Chris, says there was a sliding doors moment recently when he was set to head back to Perth but opted against which opened the door at Essendon.
“I was pretty happy for him because of what he’s been through the last five or so years,” he said on SEN’s Bob & Andy.
“It’s been pretty harrowing watching him bed-ridden there for 18 months. So to see him get up and keep going through those obstacles to finally get the opportunity.
“I’ve been speaking to Adrian (Dodoro) quite regularly as he’s (Alec) been motoring along and getting better.
“The draft came (and went) and we thought it might be good opportunity for him with the new SSP (supplemental selection period) to train on and see how he fits in. He’s not exactly 100% but he’s getting really close. He played good footy last year.
“We discussed sending him home for two or three weeks and that might be the go, but that’s the way Essendon went with it.”
Waterman explained how his son first learnt about the condition which knocked him around while he was with the Eagles.
“He was playing for East Perth, the aligned club with the Eagles, back in ’15,” added Alec’s old man.
“He came home on a Saturday morning and he was really crook. They had a East Perth-West Perth derby on the Monday and he managed to get up for it. Then on the Tuesday the Eagles did his blood test and they said, ‘you’ve got glandular fever’.
“He eventually found out it was adrenal fatigue so he had to learn about that for the next 18 months. There’s no medical prescription for it, so it was just about living a very healthy life.
“It just takes time. It can take someone two weeks, it can take someone 10 years.”
As Waterman started to feel better, he slowly got involved in footy again and eventually returned to the playing field with Claremont in the WAFL.
Waterman Snr continued: “He started moving back into footy. He was coaching an under-16s team, he started doing some running for the reserves at Claremont and then towards the end of ’18 he rang me up and said, ‘I’m going to have a crack at the ressies tomorrow’.
“The first thing I said was, ‘You better ring them up because the team list went out last night!’.
“He did that and just pottered around. He was out there playing, running around with a smile on his face. I remember thinking, ‘This is it, I’m happy with this because he’s just enjoying it’.
“That was towards the end of ’18 and now he’s popped on an AFL list so it’s a pretty big effort.”
The midfielder-turned-forward also had to endure three broken ribs and a punctured lung after playing for the Tigers against brother Jake in 2019.
“He couldn’t run or do anything for six weeks and he was dying to do something.”
Waterman himself explained how he kept busy by helping prepare Fremantle draftee Joel Western for life in the AFL.
“I didn’t do a lot for a while (after being delisted by West Coast),” he said on Sportsday.
“I did a bit of coaching for a family friend and his young kid, who’s now at Fremantle which is pretty funny.
“(His name is) Joel Western who went at pick 54 (last year), he’s an exciting player as well so we’ll see if he gets a game. If not, I guarantee he’ll be thereabouts this year so keep an eye on him.
“The (break) was really good, I filled in time and took my time in getting back – I enjoyed playing with some mates at local footy, back to reserves at Claremont and then played WAFL footy in 2019 and 2020.”
Waterman has been handed the number 42 jumper by the Dons and is expected to play against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night.