And, from the start to the finish, the Watson family delivered. Essendon has endured an occasionally difficult relationship with the media in recent years for shielding its players behind Kevin Sheedy but the club was sensible enough to realise the public could not get enough of Jobe Watson and his smile. If the middle part of the story - the game itself - demonstrated that the teenager still has much to prove, it was equally obvious that football holds no fear for him. He looked as though he belonged and his humble humour after the game was endearing. Watching him stand alongside James Hird was a better advertisement for the AFL than two years of Campaign Palace commercials. The Whitten story made us cry because it was about an end. The Watson story is about a new beginning but it also came attached to tragedy because Tim's brother Larry, a former Bomber, lost his son Jake last year and Jake, too, had dreamt of running out with Essendon.



Tim Watson could not bear the distraction of calling his son's first game but must have had a long night of it, just as Jobe has had a long week. His radiant grin after the match probably had as much to do with relief as it did with his club's much-needed victory. As a regular media performer, Watson snr has written for The Age about his son's debut and discussed it extensively on TV and radio. That he was just another face in the crowd two nights ago was a brilliant reminder of how quickly the football timeclock passes.

But Watson's public pride has neither been pushy nor boastful and because he has clearly handled his son's rise to AFL selection in such an even-handed, sensible manner, the example of the father's wisdom has been there for all to learn from. All over Melbourne on Friday, folk were referring to it as the Jobe Watson game, but you never got the impression that the pressure would become ugly. Instead, parents and their children around Victoria had an extra spring in their step and sat glued to the game on the night, willing Jobe's first possession.

Afterwards, I suspect, fathers and sons everywhere were handballing cushions around their living rooms well after midnight. Perhaps the parks on Saturday, too, boasted more kick-to-kicks than usual. The match was a massive boon also for Channel Nine and Telstra Dome. The Wayne Carey showdown against the Kangaroos in early May was orchestrated for Friday night football but Nine could not have dreamed of the emotional circumstances when the Kangaroos (and Jason McCartney) took on Richmond, nor young Watson's debut this weekend.

A crowd of almost 50,000 turned up for a game between two bottom-eight sides - the biggest attendance for an Essendon-Geelong match in four years. It's a family game, after all, and the Watson family presented football with a lasting gift on Friday night. Tim Watson is an Age columnist and works with Caroline Wilson on Channel Seven's Talking Footy.