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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Sam Mitchell was straight to the point when asked if he had a plan to curb Fremantle wizard Shai Bolton in Thursday night\u2019s blockbuster at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, more than one,\u201d the Hawthorn coach quipped.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an enormously talented player, and offensively, he\u2019s creating enormous problems for the opposition, and what he does in the front half in particular is very difficult to replicate and difficult to stop. But, yeah, we certainly have a plan for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, this contest between the second and third-placed teams features two footballing wizards: the mercurial Bolton, who thrives late in games, and Nick Watson, the man actually dubbed \u201cthe Wizard\u201d, who also flourishes when the spotlight is at its brightest.<\/p>\n Related Article Bolton, 27, is on track for a second All-Australian blazer, averaging career highs in disposals (24.8), contested possessions (10.6), uncontested possessions (15.1) and clearances (4.5), morphing into a bona fide midfielder who can still push forward.<\/p>\n He is must-watch viewing, a point reinforced when he shredded Carlton and the Western Bulldogs in the fourth quarters of the Dockers\u2019 past two wins.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just wants to have his hands on the ball when the game is on the line,\u201d Dockers coach Justin Longmuir says.<\/p>\n The dual premiership Tiger is one of only six players to average at least 25 disposals, one goal, and one score assist per game, sitting sixth in the polling for the AFL Coaches Association award. Twice he has logged the perfect 10 votes, including last weekend.<\/p>\n Teammate Mason Cox, the former premiership Magpie<\/a> who played alongside Nick Daicos, Bobby Hill and Jordan De Goey, told the Red Time podcast Bolton was \u201cone of the most exciting players I\u2019ve ever played with\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just does stuff where you give him the ball and you just kind of watch him like, be shifty as hell, side step three people and somehow kick one from 55,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re just going, \u2018I couldn\u2019t do that if I tried that 1000 times\u2019. [It\u2019s] just freak athlete stuff and I absolutely love it. He\u2019s such an exciting talent who everyone loves to watch … he\u2019s an absolute gun.\u201d<\/p>\n Watson, 21, has made huge gains, flourishing in his customary role as a goalkicking forward but also when sent into the midfield to provide spark, delivering the tasty possibility of he and Bolton spending time together in the same part of the ground.<\/p>\n Longmuir said Watson was \u201cclearly one of the more dangerous small forwards in the comp\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe plays a few different roles. Clearly, he goes into centre bounces and some stoppages as well. We just need to make sure we get those handovers right,\u201d Longmuir said of his defensive set-up.<\/p>\n A deeper dive shows it\u2019s during general play when Watson particularly hurts opponents, 60 per cent of his 20 goals coming during this phase \u2013 the second highest of the top-30 goalkickers.<\/p>\n His impact is multi-faceted, fourth across the league for scoreboard impact, behind only Charlie Cameron, Jeremy Cameron and Ben King. He, too, is on track for an All-Australian blazer.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the thing with Nick is he\u2019s pretty passionate about his forward craft, and I know you \u2026 are all excited \u2026 to see him in the midfield a bit more, and there\u2019s lots of small forwards that would love to be midfielders,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loves being a forward. And he\u2019s been that his whole career, since juniors. And I think the thing that he works on is what he\u2019s good at.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s not just the goalkicking and the finishing and the crumbing, but his pressure and his intensity around the ball is very, very difficult to replicate if you don\u2019t train it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think to his credit, he\u2019s worked really hard on his game in the last nine months from the end of last season to the start of this season.\u201d<\/p>\n Watson\u2019s love of the contest is also clear, for he leads the league in ground-ball possessions inside 50 (25) and is fifth for disposals (54).<\/p>\n Now in his third season, the Eastern Ranges\u2019 product \u2013 like Bolton \u2013 has built the physical strength required to handle what comes his way.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI think no one\u2019s probably made bigger gains physically than he has, and credit to him that he\u2019s been able to start to blossom. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve seen the best of \u2018Wizard\u2019 just yet,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n Bolton is in the prime of his career, and was lured home to Perth to be a key plank in what the Dockers hope will be their maiden premiership.<\/p>\n Mitchell has watched Bolton\u2019s game mature, from his early years at Punt Rd into the elite game-winner seen now.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he was at Richmond, he was a star,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cLike most players, he\u2019s continued to grow through the middle part of his career, and he\u2019s going to continue to develop his game, and credit to him and to Freo for the environment they\u2019re putting around him that he can continue to evolve his game and grow it and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came the kicker. \u201cHopefully, not this week,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/db8c7c0dff6586603f1b221dc49e6eb58ab66b4c.jpeg\")
The wizards of the AFL go head to head: Fremantle\u2019s Shai Bolton (left) and Hawthorn\u2019s Nick Watson.Photos: AFL Photos. Artwork: Aresna Villanueva<\/p>\n![\"WorkSafe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777990871_887_0787131d3910a2f5924b4acbf0d245c4defe8399.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8db992173243bd402ecd93addbb002f0ba514593.jpeg\")
Nick Watson brought the magic in the final quarter.AFL Photos<\/p>\n![\"Jon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773472229_978_b41a40c453ab3b0ce85a012a2f2e71470a51efea.png\")
Jon Pierik<\/a> is a sports journalist at The Age. He covers AFL and has won awards for his cricket and basketball writing.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-653991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}