The Bombers’ skipper has been in terrific form in the opening three rounds of competition, but Crowley said it wasn’t a certainty he’d play on him.
“I haven’t played on Jobe for the past couple of times we’ve played Essendon,” he said.
Talking Points ahead of Essendon
The Fremantle tagger highlighted a host of talented on-ballers he could stand in Sunday’s game at Patersons Stadium.
“Running through their midfield in my mind, they’ve got a few guys I could go to,” Crowley said.
“I’ve gone to Brent Stanton in the past, Dyson Heppell is obviously in good form and David Zaharakis even. It could be a number of guys.”
Crowley said the 2012 Brownlow Medallist Watson was a tough midfielder to tag because of his ability to win his own ball in the packs.
“He’s one of those guys that’s really hard to stop getting the ball,” he said.
“He got away from me a bit a couple of years ago at Patersons Stadium because he’s so good on the inside.
“Sometimes you can limit their outside players if you can stop the outside ball and the handball receives, but if he’s going to be winning his own ball all the time, it’s pretty hard to stop.”
Many experts have noted similarities in the way the current Essendon team has been playing under Mark Thompson and the great Geelong side of 2007-2010 that ‘Bomber coached to two premierships.
The Cats were renowned for their ability to use handball and short kicks to dominate possession and generate big scores.
Under Thompson, Geelong averaged 55 inside 50s and 16 goals per game, the exact same numbers Essendon has generated after three games in 2014.
“You can definitely see that,” Crowley said.
“They are flicking the ball around a lot, a lot of high-possession game.
“They were pretty ominous on the weekend, so we’ve got our work cut out.”
Match Preview: Fremantle v Essendon
Fremantle under Ross Lyon have performed well against handball-happy, high-possession opposition, using its suffocating team defence to clog up the pathways from defence into attack.
But Crowley said all that was pointless if the team does not come to play.
“As long as you bring your effort game, as Ross always talks about, it can be a positive,” he said.
“But if you’re not running and you’re not chasing and you’re not tackling, then you can get sliced pretty quickly.
“It can go one of either way, and hopefully the boys are ready to go on the weekend and we’ll bring that effort.”
