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Why Twomey has second-year Hawk as a genuine All-Australian smokey
Lachlan Geleit • February 13th, 2025 10:11 am
AFL Media’s Cal Twomey is expecting Hawthorn’s Nick Watson to go to another level in 2025.
The 19-year-old forward burst onto the scene in his first year in 2024, kicking 25 goals from 18 games after being taken with pick No. 5 in the 2023 Draft.
While Watson got off to a rough start in terms of accuracy, kicking 6.18 from Round 1 to Round 17, he quickly found his feet thereafter, finishing with 19.9 in his last nine games as the Hawks went all the way to Semi-Final weekend.
After sitting down with the young star for a feature interview on AFL.com.au, Twomey says that Watson is set to bring out even more tricks in 2025 as he tries to bring high-marking back into his game after being grounded somewhat last season by an ankle concern.
“It's been good to watch his progress over the course of a few years,” Twomey told SEN Sportsday.
“I've interviewed Nick a lot across the years as well and noticed a real comfortability in chatting to him, even just the other day around where he sees his footy and how confident he is in everything.
“It's actually quite funny, he said something similar to what I'd said a couple of people in the off-season that I can't wait to see Nick Watson bring out the leap and the jump because having watched him at school footy and for the Eastern Ranges, he used to go for hangers all the time.
“Every week he'd try and grab one and most weeks he'd successfully grab one and he said, ‘I feel like I've got my leap back. I'm ready’. So, that's the next bit.”
Twomey even went as far as to pick Watson as a genuine smokey for the 2025 All-Australian team.
With Dylan Moore making the side last season with single-season goal tallies of 36, Twomey foresees Watson being in the running this season if he can go past 40 majors in his sophomore season.
“We haven't seen anywhere near the finished product of what Nick Watson's got up his sleeve,” Twomey said.
“I’m really excited to see what he can do this year, and I think he's a smokey for the All-Australian team.
“I did some numbers over the past couple of days for small forwards and how many goals they need to get in.
“If he can kick 40-odd goals this year in what we expect to be a pretty good Hawthorn side, then he's going to be right around the mark.”
Watson and the Hawks begin their 2025 campaign with an Opening Round clash against Sydney at the SCG on March 7.
