Jake Waterman Biography

West Coast rising star Jobe Shanahan describes Jake Waterman as a freak, praising the spearhead for the role he's been playing in the club's young forward line.

Waterman's goalkicking yips have been a big talking point this year, with the issue reaching fever pitch in recent losses to Port Adelaide and North Melbourne.

"We wrap our arms around him and support him, but there's heaps of moments in the game that we could have taken," Shanahan said of Waterman.

"We never look at one moment. He (Waterman) was a freak again. He just works his arse off. He doesn't get beaten."

Jake Waterman had to tune out of social media during his wayward start to the season, but the gun goalkicker is confident his radar has returned after a clutch performance against Greater Western Sydney.

Waterman, whose accuracy was a trademark in his 2024 All-Australian season, has struggled with his set-shot kicking this season and booted more behinds than goals for the first time in his career.

"I'm trying to stay off the socials a little bit. I've copped a fair few messages over the duration of the year about how I owe people money because I've lost them multis. It can be a little bit savage sometimes, but that's the world we live in," Waterman said.

"I feel like if you see 99 great things said about you, and then you see one bad thing, you focus on the negative. That's just how we are as athletes."

Jake Waterman set to follow in his father's footsteps on the Origin stage.

Jake, whose father, Chris Waterman, represented Western Australia in Origin football throughout the 1990s, is one of five final inclusions confirmed today.

Jake Waterman will miss the rest of the 2025 season after dislocating his shoulder against the Crows.

Jake Waterman earns the round 6 AFL Rising Star nomination after kicking 2 goals from 14 disposals in the Eagles' eight-point win over Fremantle.

Jake Waterman signs a new two-year deal to remain at West Coast until the end of 2020.

The hard-working 191cm forward has booted four goals and averaged nearly 13 disposals, starring with 20 touches and nine marks in round three against Geelong.

"The club has given me a great opportunity to play at the elite level; they drafted me a couple of years ago and from then on I have loved the club since I first stepped in," Waterman said.

Jake Waterman makes his AFL debut for West Coast at Perth Stadium with 8 disposals (4 kicks and 4 handballs), 2 marks, 3 tackles and a goal in a 29-point loss to Sydney.

After a full pre-season, Jake Waterman is eyeing a position in the Eagles' evolving forward line for the round one blockbuster against Sydney.

"That's something I'm aiming to do, if I get my chance in JLT (Community Series), is to play as well as I can and hopefully lock it down for the next game," Waterman said.

"If I get to debut round one or early on in the year I'll be absolutely stoked."

Despite spending most of last year rehabbing his foot, Waterman was close to a call-up for West Coast's farewell to Domain Stadium in round 23.

However, an untimely chest infection meant he barely trained all week and struggled to run laps two days before the game.

"I wasn't in any condition to play if I got my debut. I ended up playing against Subi in the WAFL, but I could barely breathe," he said.

"It was probably the worst time I could've gotten sick really.

"I was pretty unlucky, but I didn't ever think I was going to be that close, so I took a lot of confidence from that."

West Coast select Jake Waterman with pick No.77 in the 2016 National Draft.

The son of club great Chris and younger brother of former squad member Alec said although he was proud to continue the Waterman legacy at the club, he wanted to forge his own identity in the Eagles’ nest.

On carrying the family’s name, he said: “That’s been thrown round a fair bit but I’ve brushed that off as I’ve got older and learned to deal with it. As I was a young kid it sort of plagued me, but now I’m past that and I’m just trying to make a name for myself.”

West Coast nominates Jake Waterman as a father-son selection ahead of next month's NAB AFL Draft.

Waterman, 18, is the son of two-time Eagles premiership player Chris Waterman.

"We've seen Jake for a three-year period since his under-16 carnival with WA and identified him as a 'draftable' player," West Coast's national recruiting manager Rohan O'Brien said.

"We were really pleased to nominate Jake and while both parties understand there are no guarantees on draft night, we're hopeful he ends up at the West Coast Eagles."

Jake Waterman - the son of two-time West Coast premiership player Chris Waterman - is one of 81 players vying for the attention of recruiters at the NAB AFL Draft Combine ahead of next month's draft.

But weighing heavily on the 18-year-old's mind is the wretched fate of older brother Alec, who was delisted by West Coast last month after failing to crack into the senior side.

An inside midfielder who showed plenty of potential, Alec was taken by the Eagles as a father-son pick in 2014 but was struck down with glandular fever the following year and never managed to fully recover.

For Waterman, it was a reminder of the importance of not wasting his opportunity to become an AFL footballer.

"(Alec) has gone through a lot recently and it's been pretty sad and hard for the family to see him go down like that," he said.

"That's what was sort of going through my mind when it was all happening, just to not go through the motions and stuff like that and make sure I get the best out of myself, because it can end as quick as that."