CAST your mind back 18 months ago.
It’s round nine, 2011. Melbourne takes on St Kilda at Etihad Stadium, looking for its fourth win of the season.
The Demons remain with the Saints for much of the day, before falling short by 20 points. Although Melbourne misses out on the four points, a genuine positive emerges: the debut performance of Western Australian Michael Evans.
At just 18 years old, Evans notches up 27 disposals – the second most for the Demons – and bettered only by leader Nathan Jones.
Although the midfielder plays the next three matches, his 2011 season soon ends with a back injury, sidelining him for the final seven rounds. The injury comes on top of a slated post-season hip operation. But the combination of the two injuries doesn’t bode well for 2012, when he plays just four VFL matches for the year (although he’s also an emergency for Melbourne’s clash against St Kilda in round 20).
Fast forward to now and Evans – by this time on Melbourne’s primary list – is cautious, but confident he has overcome his back and hip injuries.
“At the moment, I’ve just started training again with the main group and all things are positive, so we’ll see how we go in the next month or two,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“I had a hip defect when I got to the club [in December 2010] and the club knew that early on, so it was always going to get operated on at the end of the 2011 season. The surgery was to not only fix the hip up, but to make it better.
“The work I’ve done in rehab for the past year has strengthened my core, and that’s helped me put on some weight around my legs, which should hopefully help my footy.”
But Evans said he wasn’t sure whether his hip or back had caused him the most grief.
“I had a couple of hip ops and they were probably linked with the back injury,” he said.
“It’s hard to tell which one was causing the other, but it got a little bit out of hand, where I had two hip surgeries in the last year. And I had a couple of back stress fractures as a result, so 2012 was a pretty bad year.
“But I’ve had those operations done now, so hopefully they’re behind me.”
Evans said it had been difficult being on the sidelines, but he praised the help of his mother and board member Russel Howcroft and his family.
“At times it was difficult, but Mum was really good. She came over from Perth when I had both surgeries and she looked after me for the first week or so, because you can’t really get around and feed yourself,” he said.
“The Howcrofts – Russel and his wife Kate – have also been great. I lived with them in my first year, but I still see them pretty regularly and they helped me through the injuries.
“Looking back on last year, a lot of younger guys can have years that are like that, where you have a few injuries, but hopefully it’s all behind me now.”
