Toast Watson, Blight & Watters - the positives

[austinnn]

In my time following the club if I had to rank the coaches in reverse order of popularity, Tim Watson, Malcolm Blight and Scott Watters would be the top three, and with good reason.

But I was interested in starting a discussion about the positives we saw from these three coaches, to find out if there were any I suppose.

I don't mean the positives we saw from the club during their time at the club, Lenny's debut for example, but specifically the Watson/Blight/Watters influence.

 

[George]

The positives: They left

/thread

 

[jwikked]

In my time following the club if I had to rank the coaches in order of popularity, Tim Watson, Malcolm Blight and Scott Watters would be the top three, and with good reason.

But I was interested in starting a discussion about the positives we saw from these three coaches, to find out if there were any I suppose.

I don't mean the positives we saw from the club during their time at the club, Lenny's debut for example, but specifically the Watson/Blight/Watters influence.

Front page on the newspapers

 

[Joffaboy]

Watson got us Roo and Kosi

On SM-S908E using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[PoppedCorn]

Meanwhile, at house of austinnn

 

[my name was taken]

all i can say is, one blokes aura and presence was so huge he didnt even have to rock up it was that big. Felt it from the golf course.

 

[StCicatriz]

destructive behaviours - the positives

 

[sunny3193]

In my time following the club if I had to rank the coaches in order of popularity, Tim Watson, Malcolm Blight and Scott Watters would be the top three, and with good reason.

But I was interested in starting a discussion about the positives we saw from these three coaches, to find out if there were any I suppose.

I don't mean the positives we saw from the club during their time at the club, Lenny's debut for example, but specifically the Watson/Blight/Watters influence.

Tim Watson realised the job was beyond him and was man enough to make that call.
Never begrudge a man making a hard call.
Malcolm Blight was a fruitcake and should never have got the gig, except GT and his coke addled buddy thought they were smarter than everyone else in the industry and gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Never begrudge a man earning a crust.
Scott Watters I know nothing about as I was not living in Australia.
Never begrudge a man when you have no knowledge of them.

 

[austinnn]

Meanwhile, at house of austinnn

I'm at work right now but that could very well be correct

 

[George]

But seriously, I don't know what you mean by most popular? Least popular? Everyone hated them all.

Watson completely out of his depth, the club thought a great player would automatically transition to a great coach. He offered nothing and we shouldn't have ever sacked Alves. We were too quick to move on back then, and I believe Alves would've helped rebuild the club had he stayed. No highlights.

Blight took the deal for the money and worked part time, working on his handicap during the week instead of rebuilding the club after we stuffed up the Watson appointment. Blight should never have been hired, his heart wasn't in it and we shouldn't have been so desperate. Nothing from his tenure stands out, it was GT who began to develop the high end talent we had on the list in those years.

Watters has to be worst appointment we've ever made. I laugh when some defend him. He came in and ripped the heart and soul from the club. I remember Rooey or Dal talking about how in his first few weeks in the club he ripped down the accomplishments of the club in 2009 and 2010 and stressed that we were celebrating a losing culture LOL. Treated our champions like dirt, moved them on aggressively, and thought he could overrule the people above him. Went on radio the day he was sacked and said how safe his job was, etc. Infamous interview to say the least as he was sacked hours later. Worst thing we did was hiring him, best thing we did was firing him. An absolute cancer on our club that took us 11 years to recover from (and 2023 is still too early to tell, but looks like we've finally settled). Absolutely tone-deaf to dealing with people and the young kids on our list, so it makes me piss that he's set up his own consultancy firm working with youth and leadership.

 

[bird_man]

Watson really was an awful coach, but i really like the dude

Can't think of much positive about the other two

 

[jwikked]

At least Tim Watson admits he was a bad coach. He's my pick of the bunch, just because he was decent enough to admit he wasn't up to it.

Watters started our dark ages, and Blight on paper was an inspired choice (my go to line for the Hannebery trade), but clearly a disaster. One that led to the God Emperor himself, GT, taking control of the club and putting us on a great path forward.

 

[austinnn]

But seriously, I don't know what you mean by most popular? Least popular? Everyone hated them all.

Watson completely out of his depth, the club thought a great player would automatically transition to a great coach. He offered nothing and we shouldn't have ever sacked Alves. We were too quick to move on back then, and I believe Alves would've helped rebuild the club had he stayed. No highlights.

Blight took the deal for the money and worked part time, working on his handicap during the week instead of rebuilding the club after we stuffed up the Watson appointment. Blight should never have been hired, his heart wasn't in it and we shouldn't have been so desperate. Nothing from his tenure stands out, it was GT who began to develop the high end talent we had on the list in those years.

Watters has to be worst appointment we've ever made. I laugh when some defend him. He came in and ripped the heart and soul from the club. I remember Rooey or Dal talking about how in his first few weeks in the club he ripped down the accomplishments of the club in 2009 and 2010 and stressed that we were celebrating a losing culture LOL. Treated our champions like dirt, moved them on aggressively, and thought he could overrule the people above him. Went on radio the day he was sacked and said how safe his job was, etc. Infamous interview to say the least as he was sacked hours later. Worst thing we did was hiring him, best thing we did was firing him. An absolute cancer on our club that took us 11 years to recover from (and 2023 is still too early to tell, but looks like we've finally settled). Absolutely tone-deaf to dealing with people and the young kids on our list, so it makes me piss that he's set up his own consultancy firm working with youth and leadership.

Yes, my mistake, I meant ranked them for unpopularity. The least popular coaches. Thankfully everyone got it.

 

[Tommy Wigs]

I just came here for the blank replies.

Alas.

 

[Fehring]

Malcolm Blight was easily the worst person to ever coach St Kilda. I couldn't give a rat's toss bag about the bloke.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Yes, my mistake, I meant ranked them for unpopularity. The least popular coaches. Thankfully everyone got it.

Not everybody
Lol



God the worst and least liked?
Toss a coin imo

 

[StFly]

Worst, none of the above, Kingsley was hilarious during his caretaker gig, even more hilarious is he actually got a head coach gig so GWS must have been desperate to sack Cameron. Man is genuine used car salesman with nothing but lemons and is like a wannabe butch Irishman with the highest pitch voice you can imagine, only he skipped the butch part so he just looks sad with a high pitch voice instead.

But realistically, Watters.

Watson admits his faults and we did make some gains in drafting.
Blight wasn't really ever there or invested, so really shouldn't even count unless it was a golf day v BJ.
Watters is the only one that was all 100% invested and burned as much as he could as quickly as he could and then buggered off to obscurity in the biggest state in Australia where majority of it is inhabited by holes and then 12 people.

The literal only thing I credit Watters for is burning just enough so that we could slow road to rebuild from the ashes, after all it was him trying to usurp everything that got Summers and Finnis in prominent roles, and without those 2 chances are we still have a footy dept on a shoe string budget and a lease at Seaford to pay down.

 

[Sully111]

Watters was insipid

 

[Tyrian Lonestar]

Positive that they've all gone

 

[austinnn]

Fwiw, I was a fan of Tim, it started well, at least he actually cared about the club. He should have started as Stans assistant, though. The other two were total utensils who hated us and were just looking for the money in the case of Blighty and the rep in the case of Scotty.

 

[Ads734]

Watters did turn Shaun Dempster into an all Aus defender. Props for that.

 

[Plugger35]

I was overseas during the Watson Blight Thomas circus from 1999 to 2001.

I could only follow what was going on via occasional internet cafe visits, it seemed like every internet cafe visit we had a different coach.

I was a Stan Alves fan so I wasn't happy to hear he was sacked for Watson, he was a great player but didn't seem to have that ruthless coaching streak.

I was shocked when we hired Blight, great coach but I thought he was only there for the money, GT did the right thing by knifing him and taking over.

As for Watters he was a good WAFL coach and a good AFL assistant coach for Collingwood when they were all the rage but he wasn't a good AFL coach.

We could have done worse and hired Neeld who was another Collingwood assistant coach back then hired by Melbourne and was a complete disaster.

Watters wasn't a complete disaster, he turned Dempster into an AA defender by telling him to mark rather than spoil and was good fun on Mad Monday.

 

[mad-saint-guy]

Watters did turn Shaun Dempster into an all Aus defender. Props for that.

These coaches did have a few success stories (thinking of players who improved a good distance into their career, not natural improvement as a kid)

Dempster became a gun under Watters.

Sinclair became a star half back under Ratts after being a low-production half forward/wing for many years.

Mason Wood revived his career under Ratts.

Armo finally hit his stride under Richo and was an elite mid in 2015. Shame his back was cooked from that point on.

Dmac looked to have turned things around under Ratts but injuries may have put a stop to that

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Watters apparently now in training for the javelin event at the Masters Games

 

[Saintbloke]

Should have kept Alves for another year maybe, I heard the tail wagged the dog.. who knows..not sure why Tim got the job. Blight got the gig on his name and past deeds- he was pretty happy up in Qld and didn't give a stuff. Watters came at a bad time, when Lyon had walked, we had lost grand finals and whoever came in then would have struggled. A friend's son played under Watters and said the younger guys really liked him, but a few of the bigger name players wouldn't listen to any criticism or accept change, so the old tail wagged the dog there it seems...