A footballer’s career trajectory is a little like a golf ball’s – while much depends on the ability of the player, much also depends on the club and more than a little on the lay of the land.

It was mainly ability that made Chris Judd a star from game one. It took Tim Kelly 93 WAFL games to be noticed.

Fremantle recruit Brett Bewley spent five full seasons at Williamstown in the VFL, finally producing a 2018 season that caught Fremantle’s eye. They took him at pick 59 in last year’s draft and he has been a star on the track over summer.

Bewley is 23, with a body ready made for AFL. The coming weeks and months will tell if he has the game to match.

He considers himself lucky: That his time in waiting offered him an education in life as well as football.

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And that now every day when he doesn’t find himself lacing up work boots at 5am to be a a carpenter knowing that he won’t be home again until about 9pm after VFL training at Williamstown.

One thing about the second tier – it has its way of sorting those who really want to from those who only kind of want to.

It is not impossible to be drafted as a mature age player but the older you get the more you have to do. Bewley made the VFL team of the year as a 22-year-old in 2017 and was on the recruiting radar of several clubs. But when he wasn’t picked up, many of the interested clubs dropped off.

What changed? It is hard to find a story about Bewley’s 2018 season that doesn’t include the words “took his game to another level”. He had the fourth most disposals in the VFL, improved his marking, became one of the VFL’s deadliest players heading inside attacking fifty and finished second in his club’s best and fairest. Fremantle stayed interested.

Camera Icon Brett Bewley is looking to make his mark at Freo. Credit: AFL Media

“I finished the 2017 season and I thought it might have happened then,” Bewley said from the Dockers Community camp in Geraldton this week.

“When it didn’t I went back to Williamstown with no real expectations. I wanted to play in a successful team and have a bit of fun. My game grew over the year. We were able to have a good season and I was lucky to get picked. It was a case of play some good footy and see what happens.”

Bewley says he prides himself on hard work. The rest just “is what it is”.

Bewley had captained TAC Cup team the Western Jets in 2013 but now views the delayed entry to the AFL as a “blessing”.

“I am a qualified carpenter. I am at a better space in my life for this to happen.”

“I would say I have matured over those years. I have worked out what sort of person I am and what sort of player I want to become. I have been able to mould that into my game,” he said.

“Once you get over the fact that you are not as good as you think you are it helps a lot.”

Bewley said he doesn’t look past the next training session. If he strings as many good ones together as he can before the start of the season then hopefully a chance comes at some point. He will get an idea of where he sits in the pecking order next month when the Dockers pick a team for their JLT Community Series clash with Collingwood.

Camera Icon Bewley hits the water at Cottesloe last month. Credit: The West Australian

Expect him to be in contention if not in the team. Don’t expect him to be thinking too much about it now.

“I don’t look too far ahead. I just take each training session as it comes and I try to get the best out of myself and that will give myself the best opportunity to be there when the whips are cracking,” he said. “I am not trying to change too much. Being that little bit older I am lucky in that I know my body and I try to stick to what I know.”

What he has already noticed abut Fremantle – and this is good news – is how “tight” the group is.

“I don’t have any previous years to compare it to but coming in I was sort of taken aback by how close the boys are,” he said. “Everyone is about that same age and it is a tight knit group. That is always the first step to success – that the group gels together.”