The tall and short of it (from left): Soccer star Lionel Messi, Collingwood’s Mason Cox, Hawthorn’s Nick Watson, and Hollywood star Tom Cruise.Credit: Photos: AFL Photos, Getty Images. Artwork: Aresna Villanueva, Nathan Perri
At the 2014 national draft, the prospect of Caleb Daniel being selected at the top of the draft was virtually non-existent.
A stereotype had emerged about short men and their ability to play in the AFL.
Daniel was just 168 centimetres, the same height Brent Harvey was when North Melbourne drafted him with pick 47 in 1995. “I wished I could hang upside down and grow a couple more centimetres, and don’t worry, I tried that [before I was drafted] as well,” said Harvey, who went on to play a record 432 games.
Despite Harvey’s career, the mindset against short players, if anything, had strengthened. A game that prided itself on being for all shapes and sizes had often baulked at including the shortest players, as though football was a theme park ride.
An assessment of Daniel on the respected AFL Draft Central website that year reflected the conventional wisdom of the time:“On ability, the best player in the draft crop, no doubt … however Daniel is one of the smallest players to play the game. It’s about the one thing that can make even the best drop down the draft boards.”
Former Bulldog (and now Kangaroo) Caleb Daniel.Credit: Getty Images
It was a fair assessment, as only seven players shorter than 180cm had been chosen in the top five picks of the draft between 1990 and 2014. The trend towards bigger and stronger individuals seemed unstoppable – the game’s premier midfielders Marcus Bontempelli and Patrick Cripps were taller than ’60s ruck icons John Nicholls and Graham “Polly” Farmer.
As expected, Daniel dropped to pick 46 before Western Bulldogs recruiter Simon Dalrymple called his name at the draft.
Two years later Daniel was a premiership player. He won a best and fairest, too, before being traded to North Melbourne this season. He is now listed at 171cm.
But now there is a shorter player turning the stereotype on its head.
In fact, Nick Watson became the shortest top-five pick in the history of the draft when he was picked at No.5 in 2023. At 170cm, Hawthorn’s sports entertainment package is the same height as soccer legend Lionel Messi and movie star Tom Cruise. For comparison, the tallest current player (to have played a senior AFL game) is Collingwood’s Mason Cox, at 211cm.
Watson kicked 25 goals in his debut season (one more than champion Hawk Cyril Rioli in his first year), and would have scored even more heavily if not for an early career attack of the yips yielding seven goals, 19 behinds in his first 10 matches.
Watson wasn’t only the shortest player in the competition last season, he appeared to be, too. Mabior Chol literally leapfrogged his teammate after a goal.
Zak Butters, Lachie Neale, “Kozzy” Pickett, Isaac Kako, Brent Daniels and Bobby Hill are other examples of short players dominating games and dismantling stereotypes.
So, what do short players need to be amazing at to thrive in modern footy? What makes Watson, who is tipped to be good for 50 goals a season for the next decade, so good?
And is the game becoming more accommodating of smalls, provided their other attributes set them apart?
What the numbers say
Of the 781 players on AFL lists, 22 are listed in the AFL Season Guide at 175cm or less (with a further 12 later added to club lists via pre-season supplemental selections).
The number of small players drafted peaked in 2018, with seven picked from a draft pool that included Hill.
“How many examples do you need?” said an AFL recruiter of the number of smalls dominating matches. “It’s a ground-ball game. [There are] hardly any contested marks any more. Stereotypes are slowly changing.”
Only three teams averaged more contested marks per game in 2024 than they had in 2023, and Watson’s Hawks ranked 15th in the league for contested marks as they rose to a semi-final.
The leap
An ankle injury in his draft year reduced Watson’s willingness to fly for marks in his first season, but he might have a bigger crack in 2025. His screamer over teammate Seamus Mitchell at training in January showed his ability to launch.
“He will take the mark of the year one year,” says Essendon’s dual premiership player Darren Bewick, who worked with Watson as a junior.
High-flyer: Nick Watson, aka “the Wizard”, is ready to again make a splash in season 2025.Credit: Hawthorn Football Club
As a 17-year-old in 2022 pre-season testing with the Eastern Ranges, Watson recorded a running vertical jump of 94cm, which would have been equal first at the 2024 AFL draft combine.
He missed testing in his 2023 AFL draft combine through injury.
His agility (8.103 seconds over a 40-metre slalom course) and speed (2.932s over 20m) were also excellent.
In 2024, just three of his 55 marks at AFL level were contested but his first one – in front of 92,311 fans against Richmond in round 15 – showed his reach and courage as he outmarked Tom Brown from behind while falling back into the abyss.
“People think of your height as the top of the head. It’s your vertical leap and your arm length that is your highest point,” an opposition recruiter said.
Hawthorn captain James Sicily said he was yet to be outmarked by Watson, but knows the time is coming. He is wise enough to leave Jarman Impey the job of battling the youngster at training.
“‘Wiz’ can actually take a really strong mark overhead so that is something different in his game compared to some other small forwards. He takes strong contested marks over his head.”
Skills on both sides
Watson’s raw talent was obvious to Bewick when he tried out for the Rowville Sports Academy’s football program.
Bewick, the head of the school’s AFL program, watched Watson, then in grade five, dominate a small-sided game and preselected him to attend the school in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
“He wasn’t small, he was tiny,” Bewick recalled. “But he was doing stuff then I could not believe.”
Harvey was also involved in Watson’s development as he progressed through representative football, becoming an instant admirer.
“He has got a bag of tricks. In his junior days he was playing full-forward, just undersized. He could run and jump and either mark or contest, and he had a crack at everything,” Harvey said.
Watson’s skills were so remarkable that an opposition coach once told Bewick, “That left-footer is a gun.” Bewick was confused before he realised the coach was talking about Watson.
“He’s actually a right-footer.”
Watson’s favourite player growing up was Collingwood’s Alan Didak, the mercurial Magpies small forward.
Didak (184cm) has become a Watson admirer.
“He is a player every team wants and needs. He has the X-factor and he knows where the goal posts are,” Didak said. “He should get better and better every year.”
If he does, he might just smash the set against short players once and for all.
“He is a bee in a bottle,” Kevin Sheehan, the AFL’s talent guru, said.
“He goes this way, that way, and the other way and no one can lay a hand on him.”
But there is more to Watson than dancing feet, good skills and goal sense.
Elite defensive pressure
Playing as the sub in his fourth game, Watson missed a sitter. The match against the Western Bulldogs was desperately tight.
Sicily, who had handballed to Watson so he could run into an open goal, did not hide his disappointment. Watson could have looked for a hole to hide in, but stayed in the game.
Soon after that moment, Watson’s Bulldogs opponent Taylor Duryea shaped to mark. Somehow, Watson spoiled the mark then leapt from the ground to tackle Liam Jones, who had grabbed the loose ball and was about to rebound. Jones coughed it up to the Hawks’ Dylan Moore and the momentum shifted.
“Every time he goes for the ball, he jumps really high, but then he is quick to bounce back up on his feet,” Sicily said of Watson’s ability to bounce back, literally.
A clear mind, and staying dangerous
Harvey said Watson understands his role and sticks to it.
“He seems to get the ball in spots where he is going to have a shot or set them up. Every possession he gets, you think something is going to happen from it. If he has five possessions, it could be four goals,” Harvey said.
All small forwards know those barren stretches are a mental challenge. Some move away from their role, others try too hard when the ball is in their region.
Watson never seems too perturbed if he has a quiet patch.
Didak says the best small forwards don’t occupy their minds with unnecessary thoughts about how their game is unfolding. They know they need to keep their energy levels high so they can explode like a spring when their moment arrives.
“You are not the focal point, so you have to find a way to get the ball. That either requires a lot of efforts up and down the ground or crumbing. You don’t get a lot of opportunities and when you do get that opportunity the crowd enjoys it,” Didak said.
“It’s very hard for small forwards to have a long career in the AFL, and it is hard to be very, very consistent.”
Said Sicily: “He’s very free in the way he plays, and he just backs his instinct. He’s not someone who overthinks.”
The switch from defence to attack mode, and back
Most players have a split second where they become preoccupied with their fumble or missed opportunity. Watson rarely wastes that split second because his mind stays alert as he attacks larger prey like a stoat.
“Attack to defence, defence to attack, that is the game of football now, and it is actually quicker: attack, neutral, defend, defend, attack, defend, attack,” Harvey said.
“It just keeps switching so if you have not got the ability to be in the game you are really going to struggle in today’s game. People talk in seconds but a millisecond is huge in football.”
Watson – like Pickett, Hill, Tyson Stengle and Gryan Miers – reads cues to put himself in dangerous positions.
“He can also get behind his [immediate] opponent and force the deepest opponent to have to worry about him, which creates chaos for the back line,” an assistant coach said.
An appetite for risk
That free-thinking approach, combined with agility and speed, disrupts defences.
His weaving goal against Collingwood in round 20, and the front-and-square crumb and goal in the semi-final against Port Adelaide, were top-shelf examples.
“He reacts quickly and has burst speed, but then he has a lateral movement that gives him an extra second to balance,” the recruiter said.
He loves the spotlight
Watson is no longer the shortest player in the competition. That honour goes to Fremantle’s pre-season supplemental selection Isaiah Dudley at 168cm. But thanks to his outrageous skill and his part in Hawthorn’s equally outrageous ascent, Watson is among the most recognisable. His celebrations and refusal to be intimidated make him a box-office attraction.
“He’s confident, and you need that chip on your shoulder. You need to think you are as good if not better than everybody else. If you haven’t got that you have lost the battle before you even start,” Harvey said.
Watson looks destined to break down traditional thinking as his status grows, transcending his stature.
“That’s what makes the game great. You can have people as tall as Max Gawn and Ned Reeves and then also have players like Caleb Daniel and Nick Watson who can play important and influential roles for teams,” Sicily said.
“The door is open for everyone.”
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