Preseason Q&A: Koby Evans (Perth)
PERTH prospect Koby Evans garnered plenty of attention for his exploits in 2024, no less his goal celebrations. The West Coast Next Generation Academy (NGA) member played three games as a bottom-ager in Western Australia’s Under 18 side, and did enough to earn selection in the AFL Academy.
Evans, an explosive and quick forward, is looking to gain more midfield exposure with inspiration from the likes of Shai Bolton and Isaac Heeney. His brother, Josh Burke is also paving the way having been part of the Eagles’ Reserves squad since 2022. The pair could play against each other this year.
We spoke to Evans at last month’s WAFL Colts preseason testing event, hosted by Rookie Me.
>> Preseason Q&As: Cody Curtin | Joshua Nomlatyu | Fred Rodriguez | Wes Walley | Toby Whan
PRESEASON Q&A
Q: What are your earliest memories of football?
KE: “When I was a little kid with my oldest brother. He went through Perth Colts, Reserves and played a couple of League games and is now at West Coast WAFL, so I would just watch him growing up.”
Q: How would you describe yourself as a player?
KE: “Very agile and explosive. I’m fast and can break away from contest and then use my speed to get out on the run and apply tackle pressure.”
Q: Are there any players you model your game on or idolise?
KE: “Shai Bolton, he is agile and has class. Isaac Heeney too is strong at the contest, at ground level and in the air. I think I play similarly to him as a forward or mid.”
Q: You played more as a forward in your bottom-age season, would you rather spend some more time in the midfield or are you happy inside 50?
KE: “I like the forwardline but I want to try to work my way into the midfield because I think that’s where I can use more of my skills and capability. Up forward I can use most of my skills, but I’d like to grow into a midfielder.”
Q: Can you speak to the prospect of playing against your brother Josh Burke, who you mentioned earlier at West Coast WAFL. How much it has helped having a sibling in the WAFL system and how cool it would be to potentially line up against him this year?
KE: “He was thinking of quitting football last year, but after seeing how far I’d made it he opted to play on so that hopefully we can play against each other. Particularly with me being in the NGA program my first league game could be against West Coast WAFL.
“I’ll look forward to it, he is someone I idolise and going against him when he can play up forward or in the backline could be exciting. If he plays in defence I’ll kick six goals on him though. It’d be a good matchup and a great experience. I’ve only played two games with him for Northam two years ago, so that was a good experience.”
Q: What has been the impact of the National Academy on your development as a player?
KE: “The higher standards and professionalism have been awesome to learn from, especially from the coaches. The other players and I have different skills so we can learn from each other too and I can add new things into my game. I’m learning things about nutrition, what to eat, preparation, extras and recovery.”
Q: Do you find that the off-field work is important for your on-field success?
KE: “I think so, especially the nutrition, food and sleep. It’s important to prep for every game, starting on Monday with your eating leading up to training and games. My coaches have told me to prep to perform. I think my poor games in the past have been when I haven’t prepped properly. When I do prep well it’s a lot different. There’s a big impact from recovery and your pre-game habits. I didn’t used to like it but as it grew on me I learned how important it is.”
Q: Can you describe the success of your bottom-age season from a personal standpoint?
KE: “I feel like it went well. It was definitely unexpected too. Over the last few years I have had some hiccups including a stress fracture in my lower back which made me have the rest of that year off. I had to take every second week off and ended up only playing four games… I couldn’t train without aggravating it. I went up to Northam and started playing again and fractured my pinky finger in my first game back. Later that year I got an invite to Colts and just tried to take that preseason step-by-step.
“Last year I was just thinking about having a good year to get my name out there, but I unexpectedly got an email from the State 18s and from there I just put my head down and wanted to play a few champs games. I didn’t get selected for the first game so I went back to Kenwick and got ‘best on’. The week after that I played in the 18s vs. 21s game and was lucky enough to play in three champs games as a bottom-ager… I was lucky enough to be selected for the AFL academy, which I wasn’t expecting either. Since then it’s been head down, bum up and trying to give it my best shot.”
Q: You played alongside now AFL players in those State Championship games. Do you feel like seeing how those guys went about it sets you up better for this year?
KE: “Seeing how those guys trained, prepped and played was outstanding to learn from. Bo Allan was someone I really looked up to as a leader. He can do everything himself, but he can always bring others with him which makes him stand out a lot.”
Q: Would you like to emulate his leadership qualities?
KE: “I’m definitely trying to work on my leadership qualities because I want to be captain of the Perth Colts side, that’s one of my goals for this year. Speaking to all my coaches, we are working on how I can improve my leadership to bring others up and also prove myself by bringing others along to running sessions and off-field things with me.”
Q: Perth had a strong finish to the season before unfortunately falling to Swan Districts, how can you improve towards the top of the ladder in 2025?
KE: “We had a bit of a rough year with plenty of injuries and guys going out to play PSA football too. Things didn’t really go our way but we fought through to make an elimination final. This year, hopefully we can amp things up as a team. Celebrating the little things with voice and energy, encouragement and trying to bring everyone together. Getting together off-field too to create that bond. We want to be one whole team, and hopefully with less injuries this year and some new boys coming in, especially futures kids, we can look a lot stronger.”
Q: What kinds of celebrations can we expect this year?
KE: “That’s a surprise, I’ll keep them in stock.”
