TARNI Evans is a young star of the GWS side, and after a frustrating run with injury is back to her best and creating plenty off half back for the Giants.

Like many young girls, Evans’ journey into footy began via watching her older brother play. She was originally in little athletics and then soccer, but then once the women’s team started up in her hometown of Tathra, that when things really kicked off for Evans.

Coming into a GWS set up full of well known faces, it was mixed emotions for Evans.

“It felt like I was starting a new job almost, super nervous, excited and just couldn’t wait to get started but I went in with Emily Pease, and we’re good mates and we’re living together in Sydney as soon as we moved up here so that helped, but definitely daunting. Daunting, but super, super exciting.”

Speaking of her Giants team mates, there are plenty she still looks up to even now several years into her career.

“Well I look up to a few of the girls in our team. I think I have done so for a while, but as soon as I came in, but Pepa Randall, Nic Barr, Alicia, Parks, all those really experienced older girls who helped you feel more comfortable when you first came in starting, I think I look up to them when I first came in.”

“Had the stress fracture in my foot, which ended up being 23 weeks off my foot. So it’s a hard one, injuries are always hard, and I think you become more aware of your body, how you work and what it can take and what it can’t, and I think staying motivated it was mainly the girls. I had a really, really good group around me and helped me the whole time. I was on crutches and couldn’t walk for six weeks and the girls were driving me to the footy, driving me to training every week and getting groceries for me if I needed them, helped me move house halfway through that period of time as well. I think just having those girls those around me definitely was a big motivator for me 100 percent.”

Unsurprisingly, after such a long injury layoff she has absolutely loved being back on the field.

Also unsurprisingly, she was stoked at the prospect of the short turnaround between seasons 6 and 7.

After just getting back for the end of season 6, she was able to play some local footy between AFLW seasons and go home to visit her family. She found it exciting to be able to come back sooner and enjoy some more footy under her belt.

Despite the frustrating nature of this season for Evans’ GWS, the young star spoke very positively about this season, and she could not name just one teammate that has had the biggest upside this season.

“Oh so many girls. I think it’s been pretty refreshing this year with a lot of new list, Cam as the new coach and he’s been fantastic and having a new game plan, and a game plan that suits us really well and a new goal and having some aspirations, like we all just want to get better as a group at the moment. I’ve been loving it but definitely I think the game plan and having everyone on the same boat really, and all the new girls that have come in have just stepped up massively and we’ve had a few big outs with injury, but everyone’s kind of taken the opportunity to learn as much as we can.”

Evans just hopes to keep building for the rest of the season, and yesterday’s win over Hawthorn certainly will have helped that.