“I still think about it”: Ex-Saints coach Watson on overlooking 17-year-old Pavlich in ’98 draft
Former St Kilda coach Tim Watson still thinks about the time the club could have drafted Fremantle legend Matthew Pavlich.
Watson coached the Saints in 1999 and 2000 after taking over the job in October of ’98 following the sacking of Stan Alves.
It was in those initial weeks in the job where Watson was part of a conversation around picking the then 17-year-old in the 1998 AFL Draft, which took place on November 1 of that year.
Clubs were still able to take one 17-year-old per draft back then and Watson says that the Saints were weighing up whether to pull the trigger early on Pavlich who had played a handful of under-19 games at SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens.
Watson says that the Saints ultimately passed on Pavlich as they were unsure whether the teenager was suited to what the modern game would become.
“I still think about when I was coach at St Kilda and we were debating and having a conversation about this young kid, who you could have taken at the time as a 17-year-old,” Watson explained on SEN Breakfast.
“I remember the conversation going around with the recruiters and they were saying, ‘Look, he's such a big lump of a lad, he might just get too heavy, he may not be able to play the modern-day game’.
“He works for your (Garry Lyon’s) network now, Fox Footy … that’s Matthew Pavlich.
“I think everybody passed on him though (that year), everybody passed on him as a 17-year-old.”
After opting not to draft Pavlich in his bottom-age year, the forward would go on to dominate his top-age year of under-18 football and would even star for South Australia against the VFL in a state match at the MCG.
That dominant season was enough to have him drafted at pick No. 4 of the following draft in 1999.
Reflecting on the Pavlich story, Watson conceded that he feels sorry for recruiters who he feels are tasked with an incredibly tough role in forecasting what developing players will become.
“But I remember that conversation and that's the thing about recruiting, it's trying to forecast (forward),” Watson said.
“Sometimes it's their physical shape, speed, endurance or whatever and what you can't do is you can't just slice them open and see what's inside. It'd be nice to be able to do that (as a recruiter).
“I feel for a lot of those recruiters, it's not an exact science and you don’t necessarily get the access and the ability to be able to recruit the ones that you want to recruit.”
St Kilda instead drafted Lenny Hayes, James Begley, Steven Baker, Damien Ryan, Troy Schwarze, Kurt Heazlewood and Jacob Anstey in the 1998 draft.
Pavlich went on to become a legend of the Fremantle Football Club, playing 353 games for 700 goals in purple. He won six best and fairests and was named in six All-Australian sides across his career.
