After playing, Vautin became a sports commentator for the Nine Network, calling rugby league games alongside Ray Warren and the recently retired Peter Sterling.

That year he got his first taste of senior representative football when he was chosen on the bench for the Brisbane Colts who played the touring New Zealand side at Lang Park.

It was only when taken with the first grade squad to a pre-season tournament in Newcastle at the insistence of Ken Arthurson that Vautin finally started to make Stanton take notice by being among Manly's top tacklers in the games he played.

After easily being the best side in the Sydney competition during the year, and after the unbeaten 1986 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France, the Manly players later admitted to over-confidence and took the game far too lightly, treating the trip more as a holiday than anything serious and actually continued their grand final celebrations while in England.

[14] Vautin and Manly teammate Michael O'Connor both signed to play for the Alex Murphy coached St. Helens during the 1988–89 Rugby Football League season on 2 August 1988.

Fatty would go on to captain St. Helens in his last match for them, a 27–0 loss to Wigan in the 1989 Challenge Cup Final played on 29 April 1989 at Wembley Stadium in front of 78,000 fans.

He signed with the Eastern Suburbs Roosters for two years, where he even spent time in reserve grade after being dropped by coach Mark Murray - a former Queensland and Australian teammate, before retiring at the end of the 1991 NSWRL season.

However, after playing for Queensland and Australia, and helping Manly to second on the ladder and then into the grand final against minor premiers Parramatta, he was not selected for the end of season 1982 Kangaroo tour (that team became the first to go through Great Britain and France undefeated, earning the nickname "The Invincibles").

He then played from the bench in Australia's record 70–8 win in their final 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup round game over Papua New Guinea in Wagga Wagga, but despite some good end of season form for Manly ultimately missed selection for the World Cup Final where Australia defeated New Zealand 25–12 at the Eden Park stadium in Auckland.

Fatty captained the Australian team (now coached by Bob Fulton) to a 50–18 win over a New Zealand XIII at the Palmerston North Showgrounds in the opening game of the tour.

During his career, Vautin often had to compete with players such as Ray Price, Wayne Pearce and fellow Queenslander Bob Lindner for the Australian Lock-forward position, and as such was often selected in the second row.

His final test, a 22–14 win over New Zealand at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland in the first game of the 1989–1992 World Cup, saw him wearing his favoured No.13 (lock) jumper.

[18] Vautin was then signed by the Nine Network and has been a regular commentator for Nine's Wide World of Sports' coverage of rugby league matches alongside Ray Warren and Peter Sterling since 1992.

He suffered a serious concussion in 2005 filming for the show in a segment called "Dare-Devil Dudes", when he hit his head on concrete, with a helmet luckily minimising the damage.

Since the concussion incident, he had focussed on his Footy Show appearances but was still part of the broader Nine expert commentary team for big fixtures like the State of Origin.