Kel Evans was just a teenage landscaper from Tathra when he started coming to Queanbeyan to play cricket. Little did he know he would soon be regarded as the best footballer in Canberra.
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The Queanbeyan Tigers midfielder was crowned the Mulrooney Medallist as AFL Canberra's best and fairest player recently.
Evans snapped Belconnen's five-year stranglehold on the gong to become Queanbeyan's first medallist since Mitch Daniher in 2010.
It caps off a stellar season for the 19-year-old sensation, who has quickly emerged as one of the competition's most electrifying players since Tigers coach Dave Corcoran lured him to football two years ago.
Watching Evans kick a soccer ball in a cricket warm-up flicked a switch for Corcoran, leading him to approach the Queanbeyan wicketkeeper about pulling on a yellow and black jumper.
"That's how I met Dave, through the cricket club," Evans said in June.
"During an off-season I decided to have a run with footy and just fell in love with it. [I] started going alright so I thought I'd come to Queanbeyan for that instead and it just so happened Dave turned out to be the first-grade coach and he got me on board."
The Tathra product was picked for the Canberra representative side that thrashed the best of the Black Diamond League in May.
Many wouldn't be surprised if he follows in the footsteps of another Tathra junior that used a stint in Canberra to launch his AFL career.
That player is Demons forward Aaron vandenBerg.
