When Geelong called out Francis Evans at pick 41 in the 2019 National Draft, it sent many draft experts scurrying for their notes to work out just who the Cats had plucked from obscurity.
Evans had a total of seven games of football to his name that season, five of which came for the Brunswick Football Club in Division Two of the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
Evans booted 21 goals in five matches for Brunswick, before a brief, two-game stint at the Calder Cannons was brought to a swift conclusion by a heel fracture.
It was his eight-goal outing for Brunswick against the Melbourne High School Old Boys that first alerted Cats’ Recruiting and List Manager Stephen Wells to the potential young talent.
“We got a whisper that Frank was performing well in the amateur competition,” Wells says.
“We got some vision of that eight-goal game, we didn’t have a person there, but we certainly saw the vision.
“We went to watch him play and on that day my recollection is that he kicked four, he showed enough to suggest that he was worth following.
“He had a good work ethic, he was classy enough to kick goals when he got the opportunity but he also got possessions all across the front half of the ground and he was a tough kid and showed the things that are the foundation for having a good career."
Evans didn’t believe his friends when they spruiked sightings of the legendary Cats recruiter watching from the stands at Brunswick's home, AG Gillon Oval.
“I had a few mates who were Cats fans and I thought they were just taking the Mickey out of me,” Evans says with a laugh.
“I found out after I got injured that he came to a few of those games. That came as a bit of a shock to me.”
More surprises were in store for the draft hopeful, a call from the Geelong Football Club the foremost among them.
“I got a call from my manager and he mentioned that Geelong were pretty keen which I was kind of shocked by,” Evans says.
“The hardest part was he told me not to tell anyone, so I had to go to school and not tell any of my mates which was pretty tough.”
Evans’ contact with the club meant draft night came as less of a surprise to him as it did to the draft experts.
“On draft night we kind of knew. We’d spoken to Geelong throughout the year, probably the back half of the footy season,” he says.
“We met with them the Sunday before the draft and kind of got the all clear, so it was pretty good draft night knowing that I was going to go, so that made it a bit easier.
Evans’ reputation as a draft smokey didn’t stop the then-eighteen-year-old putting his hand up for AFL selection in just his first season at the club, first named as an emergency in Round 7 of the 2020 season.
“I felt like I was good enough,” Evans says.
“Obviously I still have a lot to learn and at that stage I had a heap to learn, but everyone at the club, the coaches and the players were really comforting and supportive.
“There’s so much opportunity to learn here and grow so I’ve found it pretty easy.”
It was a wild introduction to AFL football for Evans, travelling across the country as a part of Geelong’s quarantine hub and restricted to playing reduced-numbers scratch match football.
“The footy aspect was hard, but it was really good as a first-year player to get to know everyone a bit better. That goes from the players to the coaches to the staff to even the partners of the players,” he says.
“I got to know everyone and feel a part of the family now."
The 182cm forward will formally become part of the family when he pulls on the hoops this Friday Night at GMHBA Stadium.
“Shaun Grigg rang me yesterday around lunchtime and I was back home in Brunswick which was good, my mum and my sister were the first ones to find out. That was pretty nice,” he says.
“I told my mates who I met up with afterwards so they were pretty chuffed. I’ve got a few of the boys from Brunswick (coming Friday night), I think they’ll be pretty happy to come.”
I feel like tomorrow will go pretty long I reckon, once I get to the ground I should be ok but I guess the build up will be pretty nerve-wracking.
