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Swans rookie is a rising champ
By RAY KERSHLER
April 21, 2004
FOR a while yesterday Paul Bevan had trouble deciding which had been his best game so far for the Swans.
Bevan, just 19 and only four games into his senior AFL career, has won the round four nomination for the AFL's national Rising Star Award.
As he returned for the 2004 season the teenager had aspirations to be elevated from the Swans' rookie list. Just one senior game, any senior game would have been a bonus.
Instead, Swans selectors immediately threw him into the seniors against reigning premiers the Brisbane Lions.
He has played in all three Swans victories since.
Bevan gathered 12 possessions against Brisbane and 10 against Fremantle but seven kicks, 12 handpasses and a goal against the Kangaroos in Canberra on Sunday won him the Rising Star nomination.
After "a pretty ordinary week" against Geelong in the previous round, Bevan was determined to make his presence felt against the Kangaroos.
Still, he considered the game against Fremantle to be a pretty good effort before deciding on the match against the Kangaroos as his best so far.
Good decision that. Best not to disagree with any selectors at this stage of the career.
Bevan's nomination, the first for the Swans this season, means he joins contemporaries Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Adam Schneider, previous nominees in 2003, in an exclusive club which dates back to Michael O'Loughlin's nomination in 1995.
In a more exclusive club is the 2003 Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes, who won the Rising Star award in 1999.
"You don't play for awards but it is nice to receive them," Bevan said yesterday before the Swans resumed training for Saturday night's clash with Melbourne.
"At the start of the season I'd have been happy to get just one seniors game, any game," he said. "So I don't set long-term goals."
Bevan said he knew such awards did not guarantee him a game every week.
"I'm over the the moon to have played four games already. Hopefully I'll get a game each week. That's the way I look at it.
"I set myself a few goals in the pre-season. I came back pretty fit.
"My first goal was to come off the rookie list which I did and then to get a senior game, which I did.
"Now this. Well, it's been a big month."
By RAY KERSHLER
April 21, 2004
FOR a while yesterday Paul Bevan had trouble deciding which had been his best game so far for the Swans.
Bevan, just 19 and only four games into his senior AFL career, has won the round four nomination for the AFL's national Rising Star Award.
As he returned for the 2004 season the teenager had aspirations to be elevated from the Swans' rookie list. Just one senior game, any senior game would have been a bonus.
Instead, Swans selectors immediately threw him into the seniors against reigning premiers the Brisbane Lions.
He has played in all three Swans victories since.
Bevan gathered 12 possessions against Brisbane and 10 against Fremantle but seven kicks, 12 handpasses and a goal against the Kangaroos in Canberra on Sunday won him the Rising Star nomination.
After "a pretty ordinary week" against Geelong in the previous round, Bevan was determined to make his presence felt against the Kangaroos.
Still, he considered the game against Fremantle to be a pretty good effort before deciding on the match against the Kangaroos as his best so far.
Good decision that. Best not to disagree with any selectors at this stage of the career.
Bevan's nomination, the first for the Swans this season, means he joins contemporaries Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Adam Schneider, previous nominees in 2003, in an exclusive club which dates back to Michael O'Loughlin's nomination in 1995.
In a more exclusive club is the 2003 Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes, who won the Rising Star award in 1999.
"You don't play for awards but it is nice to receive them," Bevan said yesterday before the Swans resumed training for Saturday night's clash with Melbourne.
"At the start of the season I'd have been happy to get just one seniors game, any game," he said. "So I don't set long-term goals."
Bevan said he knew such awards did not guarantee him a game every week.
"I'm over the the moon to have played four games already. Hopefully I'll get a game each week. That's the way I look at it.
"I set myself a few goals in the pre-season. I came back pretty fit.
"My first goal was to come off the rookie list which I did and then to get a senior game, which I did.
"Now this. Well, it's been a big month."
