Good Evans, small forward comes with some big wraps

NEW Cat Francis Evans has been described as a “late bloomer” by his VAFA club president Jarryd Browne.

Geelong produced the shock of the national draft last night, plucking the little-known forward at pick 41 from amateur club Brunswick NOBS in Melbourne’s northwest.

The mercurial talent started the year playing senior football in the sixth tier of the Victorian Amateur Football Association before playing two games for the Calder Cannons in the NAB League.

“Certainly a smoky, but they have got a good kid on their hands, I know that,” Browne said.

“He’s a really late bloomer who always had skill playing juniors at our footy club. But he’s grown late and gained a bit of confidence from that.

“He played senior football at 16 last year and then played the first five games of the year for us. He was leading the goalkicking, got the VAFA Rising Star and we had a couple of recruiters come down and watch him live.”

Browne, who championed Evans’s cause, said the skilful forward finished third in the club’s senior best-and-fairest from only five matches.

“He’s good either side, he can go right or left,” he said.

“He’s got a lot more time than a lot of people do on the ground. Time seems to stand still got him a bit.

“He learned the forward craft playing small but he’s not probably six (foot) one and can play a little bit taller.”

The 182cm talent had scouts flocking to Brunswick’s A.G Gillon Oval in the first month of 2019, booting 21 goals in five matches including a haul of eight against Melbourne High School Old Boys.

The urging of his club and Brunswick NOBS junior teammate Daniel Mott helped Evans earn three games with Calder Cannons late in the campaign after he overcame a foot injury.