I was excited by Watermans inclusion as he was the first inside player that we got in ages that had a physique of a fully developed mid. His early wafl form was promising as well. Its pretty disappointing what happened to him as we would have had a few options now if he was fit. In fact Priddis might have even been dropped as he would have been holding back Waterman as well sheed and Redden.He played less than 10 games for East Perth and was racking up decent possessions but I did not see many of these games. I can only speak about his Claremont games and his U18.
My view was that he was lining up to be our inside extractor. He was a blue collar inside mid that had reasonable pace, good decision making, good kicking and good handball skills. He occasionally hit the scoreboard but the best for me was that he was a pretty clean extractor. He roved to Darcy Cameron and was really good in that role.
Now whether you can extrapolate to say he would be best 22 is a moot point. We had a player that would have been valuable and whoosh - he's gone. Glandular Fever was cruel to him and I believe we were keen for him on the inside.




