Parramatta's new signing Bevan French. Source: Sam Ruttyn / News Limited
BEVAN French was only three games into his first grade career when tragedy struck.
"Yeah, mum found out,'' the Aboriginal teenager grins. "I'd already played a few times for Tingha firsts, but mum, she had thought I was still in under-18s.
"So when somebody told her, she said 'nup, that's it, I don't want you playing anymore'. So I agreed - then went straight back the next week.
Parramatta's new signing Bevan French. Source: News Limited
"We were actually warming up outside the sheds when mum turned up at the game . . . (laughs) she came over and told me to take my jumper off. Our coach tried to change her mind but, no, that was it."
Call it a short delay to the inevitable then.
For while Tiffany French isn't exactly mad about her boy playing rugby league, the truth is young Bevan does it so well that, earlier this year, six NRL clubs including Melbourne fought over his signature.
That Parramatta won out, is impressive. Especially when you consider this gifted Inverell High product, a fullback who counts no less than Preston Campbell and Nathan Blacklock among his relatives, was also courted by Newcastle, the Gold Coast, Penrith and St George Illawarra.
Bevan French cuts through the defence to score the winning try at the Schoolboy Rugby Sevens. Source: News Limited
"And I did go visit a few of them,'' shrugs arguably the State's most sought after bush schoolboy. "But in the end I chose the Eels . . . I just had a feeling."
A feeling?
"I'm not sure exactly what it was, I just liked the people here,'' the 17-year-old continues. "The way they approached me.
"I also have a lot of friends in the area and, knowing what a problem homesickness can be for kids from out my way, that also played a factor in the decision."
Hailing from the Tingha Tigers, among the most famous bush footy clubs in NSW, French is the type of player who talks enthusiastically about "freestyle footy". A kid who when representing NSW CHS this year, wore jumper No.21 - the impact player.
Parramatta's new signing Bevan French. Source: News Limited
"And in the final, against Queensland, sure enough he came on and set up the winning try,'' enthuses Wayne Fowke, principal at Inverell High. "It was the same in the NSW Open touch final, only that time Bevan scored the try himself."
For their own part, however, Parramatta are refusing to talk up this teenager who, weighing only 76kg, had never done weights before arriving at Eels HQ. Reminding you that, with a contract allowing him to begin a university degree and travel home every six weeks to see family, he is unlikely to even play NRL before 2015.
"In footballing terms, Bevan hasn't done anything yet,'' Eels coach Brad Arthur explains. "But certainly, away from the field, he's exactly the type of young man we want to build this club around".
Fowke agrees.
"Bevan is so respected out here that, even among his peers, they call him 'Uncle','' the principal says. "He's a quiet person, incredibly humble, yet still he has this charisma about him, a belief. We all think he can really be something special . . . he just doesn't need to be rushed."
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