Australian Football

After playing a handful of games with VFA side Port Melbourne in 1919, Colin Watson, who had been brought to the city from South Warrnambool by Roy Cazaly, crossed to St Kilda in the VFL where he went on to enjoy a highly illustrious, if stuttering, league career. That stuttering began after just three games of his debut season when acrimonious in-fighting on the Saints' committee persuaded Watson to up stumps and return home to the country.

Watson returned to St Kilda in mid-1922, however, and soon treated football fans to the full range of his capabilities: stockily built, he was extraordinarily quick, both of mind and limb, and approached the game with a robustness which was as wholehearted as it was bereft of any kind of malice or spite. Equally at home on the half back line or across the centre, Watson peaked in 1924-5, earning carnival selection for the VFL and a club best and fairest award in the former year, and scoring a resounding win in the Brownlow Medal in the latter.

In 1926, he accepted the position of captain-coach of Stawell, but the Saints, perhaps not surprisingly, refused to clear him. After standing out of football for a year, Watson crossed to a different country club, Maryborough, without a clearance, and the Ballarat Football League was disqualified by the VFL as a consequence.

Watson stayed in the country, initially with Maryborough, and later with his original club, South Warrnambool, for seven years, but in 1933, aged 33, he was enticed back to the 'big time' by St Kilda. Quickly picking up where he had left off in his Brownlow Medal year, Watson was one of the Saints' best in 1933, and was included in the VFL state squad for the Sydney carnival.

In 1934, Watson captain-coached the Saints to seventh place on the ladder - their best return for five years - but after just one match of the 1935 season, which took his total number of VFL appearances to 93, the lure of the country proved too powerful, and he returned home for good.

Author - John Devaney