In the immediate aftermath of one of the most significant days in Australian sport, the individual consequences were overwhelmed by the team impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brownlow was probably more a question as the year went on, where it started to become more front-of-mind for me, I guess, when the realisation of what that might look like, and what the consequences of the result were, became clearer. But it wasn\u2019t something I thought about immediately,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like a wound that was festering, you know. You get to a point where you accept that you can\u2019t play for 12 months and that\u2019s the reality of your situation. And so you can dwell and mope about that, or you can move forward.<\/p>\n
![\"Watson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/339666200eb3d609a5ee895dfde214992ba13602.jpeg\")
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Watson on Brownlow night in 2012. Credit: Paul Rovere<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the Brownlow was a part of that, that was this wound that wouldn\u2019t heal, that was still infected, and it was just sort of getting more and more infected as the year went on. That was how it felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something that was still there and no one really had any clear picture of what it would look like, and that wasn\u2019t communicated to me until the end of the year, really, and so that just felt like something that was festering.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brownlow Medal, the Essendon captaincy and the Watson family name meant Jobe carried much of the focus of the suspension.<\/p>\n
Being forced to hand back a Brownlow for the doping offence was an additional punishment of sorts.<\/p>\n
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Watson during his time in New York.Credit: Domain<\/p>\n
Ten years on from the day the 34 players were suspended \u2013 January 12, 2016 \u2013 Watson is now at peace with what happened. Since his retirement in 2017, he has lived, and started a cafe business, in New York, where he met his wife, Virginia, and is now managing director of Watson Property Advisors in Melbourne. He has stayed connected with football as a special comments pundit on Channel Seven.<\/p>\n
But with three primary school-aged children, he admits he has wondered how he will discuss what happened once they are old enough to understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting question and something that I have thought about occasionally. At the moment I don\u2019t think they actually believe that I played,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think that I\u2019ll just explain to them that, sometimes, there\u2019s things out of your control and all you can do is deal with the scenario that you\u2019re faced with. I\u2019ll say that I don\u2019t believe I did anything wrong, I don\u2019t believe that I cheated the system, but other people found that we did. I don\u2019t think that that is an unreasonable position to be in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can believe that you didn\u2019t do something wrong when someone else finds that you have. But you can dwell on that and that can be the story of your life, or you can move on from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019ll be times, and I think that I\u2019ll say this to my kids, when people do things to you that you think are unfair, or you don\u2019t think are right, and you can carry that for the rest of your life and have it be the way in which you approach all things in life, and it\u2019ll dictate how you live the rest of your life, or you can accept it and move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes time, but time heals everything, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Watson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/acbcafcf1f85524c560597f5864dd33669c87740.jpeg\")
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Watson with his daughter and the horse he part-owns, Annavisto, at Flemington in 2023. Tom Bellchambers and Cale Hooker are also part-owners.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Five years ago, Watson said, a conversation about the Brownlow would be raw.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was deeply painful to have to give the Brownlow back,\u201d Watson said. \u201cBut, you know, it\u2019s life \u2013 you can move on from it. It was just an award.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often get asked, \u2018How do you feel about it?\u2019 And I say, \u2018Look, I have incredible memories about the experiences of winning the Brownlow Medal\u2019. I got to celebrate it with my mum and dad at the event. I had all my family and friends come afterwards and celebrate it with me. I had a week of celebrations with all my friends. They still talk about it now. And for me, the whole experience of winning the medal is one of joy and recognition of the effort and the work that was put in. Now there\u2019s parts of it that were painful afterwards, but the experience of it at the time, I still look on it fondly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another regular question is why the players did not challenge the sport science staff when they were getting injections in the stomach in the office of a sports scientist. <\/p>\n
In the players\u2019 eyes, there was no reason to resist. They believed club leaders from the coach and football manager to the club doctor knew players were being injected, and they were assured there was nothing untoward.<\/p>\n
As then-CEO Ian Robson said in announcing his resignation: \u201cWe let down our players and their families \u2026 There is no excuse in not knowing [what happened] and as CEO, I am accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CAS found that explanation understandable but unsatisfying, given that none of the players had listed injections of thymosin on declaration forms during drug testing.<\/p>\n
Watson\u2019s current attitude to the entire process is different to what it was. For a long time, it was too raw to discuss in detail. Now he is more phlegmatic, not wishing to have it define the remainder of his life as it marked his playing career.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I look back at it and there\u2019s still disappointment and frustration about the whole scenario, and what it did to players\u2019 careers, what it did to my career, what it did to the environment that we had created. And I think that that is something that is just part of the experience. It\u2019s not something that I dwell on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe frustration of what was allowed to take place while we were at the club, and then the consequences of that, and the way in which those consequences played out, and the length of those consequences, and what that meant for players\u2019 careers, and the length of time that it took to play out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I still hold to the evidence. I don\u2019t think that I\u2019m ignorant or naive to the evidence, either, because I absorbed it all and was participating in it to a degree with providing evidence, but also actively reading and collecting the evidence through transcripts. So I think that there\u2019s still a level of frustration about what was put forward, and then the consequences of that evidence and the judgment that was found.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the consequences, and this is true in life, all facets of life, is that whatever happens to you is felt more by the people around you than it is by you. And that\u2019s with everything \u2013 illness, tragedy, anything like that. And it\u2019s the same for us, and it\u2019s the same for my parents. It\u2019s the same for family members. It\u2019s the same for the family members of all the other players.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s been an anchor for the club\u2019<\/p>\n
The impact of the doping saga was profound. It divided groups within the club. Its impact on the players and the on-field performance was significant. It is not the only reason Essendon have been poor on the field in the past decade<\/a>, but it has had a lasting impact.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s been an anchor for the club from that period on,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd not only the financial. The team that we had formed at that period of time was looking like a very strong side, a very talented side, and players left because of the direct consequence of what had happened. And we lost good players, but we also lost momentum, and we lost the ability for 12 months of footy to improve and play together and then to have to come back and try again.\u201d<\/p>\n But, as Watson explained, it wasn\u2019t only the season of the suspensions that was impacted.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also the 2012 season was a difficult season because you\u2019re dealing with the actual people there and their erratic behaviour. The 2013 season was affected because of what happens with the investigation. The \u201914 season is affected because you lose one coach and another coach comes in. The \u201915 season is affected because you\u2019ve got the hearing, [and] then you\u2019ve got the appeal. And then the \u201916 season is affected because you\u2019re out, and then the \u201917 season\u2019s affected because you\u2019ve missed 12 months of footy.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s not only like you missed 12 months of footy and it was fine. That\u2019s the frustration, and the thing you\u2019re probably most angry about as a player, is that there\u2019s a five-year period of your career that has been affected.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s guys who are your teammates, who came into the club in 2012 who left in 2015 or \u201916, and their whole experience was this chaos and that\u2019s what they think football was, or that was their reality … And that\u2019s really sad for the guys who were trying to live their dream, and it was through no fault of their own. Their whole experience in the AFL system was that period.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think that the anchor that I\u2019m talking about was that the club and the playing group had been primed, and it was a five-year period of disruption, and that then caused the profile of the list to be drastically changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Then-Essendon president Lindsay Tanner on the day the players were suspended.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Former Essendon president Lindsay Tanner agrees, noting also the impact of the lost draft picks from the AFL punishment. These are players who, had the Bombers chosen correctly at the draft, would be in their peak playing years now.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you would have to say that the impact of the whole issue across on-field outcomes was significant, but there are bigger factors in play, like at the end of the day we make choices as a club about recruiting players, drafting players, signing coaches, assistant coaches,\u201d Tanner said.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to put it all down [to the CAS decision]. But it\u2019s definitely not irrelevant.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point I have made countless times to members was, yes, there are various aspects of this whole saga that I think were completely outrageous and unfair, but never forget that if we had run the club correctly, none of them would be happening.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the consequences that we are living through, painful though they are, [are] all consequences that we have effectively brought upon ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Then-Essendon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/494e55291d5955f1b542dd265e18eb3a932705c2.jpeg\")
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