Ben McEvoy
AFL
Ben McEvoy was recruited by the St Kilda Football Club as pick five in 2007 NAB AFL Draft. Ben played his junior football in the country and found himself playing with the Murray Bushranger in the TAC CUP. In his first year for the Saints, Ben made his debut 2008 and was a continual member in the side for subsequent seasons. McEvoy proved to be a highly promising ruckman and very reliable, playing 91 senior games for St Kilda over his 6 seasons with them. After being at the club for four years, Ben was recognised as a leader and great mentor for his peers and was consequently nominated into the club’s leadership group ahead of the 2012 season.
After six years at the club, Ben was traded to the Hawthorn Football Club during the 2013 Trade Period which would see Ben a Hawk in the 2014 season. After joining the Hawks in 2014, Ben had a very promising and solid year despite only playing 13 games. As a result of injury, Ben missed parts of the season however returned ready for the finals where he played an integral part in the side’s 2014 premiership win over the Sydney Swans.
2015 was another successful season for McEvoy as he played 19 games and enjoyed his second premiership. Despite Ben’s size, he is a very mobile and hard-running ruckman who can not only cover large parts of the ground, he also has the ability to go forward and kick goals.
Over the past two seasons of 2016-2017, McEvoy has continued as Hawthorn’s key ruck, playing 55 games collectively. In 2017, McEvoy had 2 games where he won a career-high of 53 hit-outs in Rounds 7 and 16. Furthermore, Ben averaged 12.5 disposals, 3.5 tackles and 32.4 hit-outs during his 2017 campaign. His outstanding 2017 campaign was acknowledged in his runner-up placing in the Peter Crimmins Medal, an award for the club’s best and fairest player.
After another strong season in 2018 and an even better start to the 2019 season, McEvoy was rewarded with a one year contract extension, seeing him at the Hawks until 2020.