ROOKIE coach John Cahill had inherited a massive job with massive expectations when he stepped from a brilliant playing career into the coaching box at Port Adelaide in the mid-1970s.

Coming up a decade since the club's last premiership, for an outfit used to regular success, Cahill knew there was little time to prove himself and hence was determined to be his own man with the decisions he made.

HALL OF FAME Check out the inductees, Legends and more

A hunch, from watching goalkicking at training, to move a player to a completely new position was pivotal in helping Cahill to build his first great Magpies team and fast-forward the career of Tim Evans into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Evans joins the Australian Football Hall of Fame as one of just two players in SANFL history with 1000-plus goals to his name at senior level and the standing as being named full-forward in the Port Adelaide Greatest Team, named by the club with the most senior premierships at state league level in the country.

Quiet and softly spoken off the field, Evans was a big powerful presence on the field with a quick opening sprint, could take both a pack mark or with vice-like hands out on the lead and was a strong reliable kick from distance, as well as being surprisingly agile at ground level for a bulky man.

Wearing No.5, he was a four-time premiership full-forward for Port Adelaide in 1977 and 1979-81 and topped the SA goalkicking in six separate years, kicking the ton three times and kicking at least 90 goals in a season a further three times.

And yet, as a prodigy from Penguin in Northern Tasmania who had several years at Geelong before a job offer took him to South Australia to join Port Adelaide, his early years were almost entirely as a reliable centre half-back/defender with no thought there may lurk within a spearhead waiting to deliver an incredible list of accolades.

Debuting in the VFL with the Cats before he was 18, Evans was an automatic selection in Geelong's defence in 1972-73 but found opportunities harder to come by the next year as Jack Hawkins (father of Tom), emerged as the club's centre half-back.

Without a secure spot in the senior team when Port Adelaide came calling for his services for 1975 looking for a key defender, with a job offer to help convince the move, Evans headed to Alberton.

Big and strong, the new recruit walked into the Port Adelaide defence as an immediate regular but coach Cahill kept watching him take goalkicking at practice with teammates and would see soaring drop punts sail straight and true.

"About six weeks into the season, he'd been playing fairly well in defence but I thought I'd try him at full-forward and see what he could do," Cahill remembers simply.

Teammate Brian Cunningham, who would captain the three premierships in a row between 1979-81, said Evans' impact was immediate, particularly with the collection of midfielders that Port Adelaide had to deliver the ball.

"If Tim got in front on a lead, it was impossible to spoil him as he had such great hands. If there wasn't space in front of him, he could jostle in the square or take a big pack mark close to goals, but he was never outmarked," Cunningham says.

"He'd come to join us from Victoria as this big strong recruit to play in defence and he was doing all right there, until Jack Cahill had this idea to try him up forward.

"Once he was locked as the full-forward, he changed our team completely and we were a regular premiership contender."

Evans topped the club goalkicking in 1975 in just over half a year playing up forward but Port Adelaide does not win its seminal 1977 premiership without the contribution of Evans.

In the centenary year of the SANFL football, Port Adelaide had now gone 12 years without a flag and its shock loss to Sturt in the 1976 decider as an unbackable favourite had wounded both coach and club deeply.

Playing Glenelg for the title, Cahill was certain his number would be up if the club lost another Grand Final to follow six consecutive losses of 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972 and 1976 and Evans had been his star up forward all year, topping the league goalkicking for the first time.

Early in a brutal game, he was felled behind play with an illegal hit and badly dazed. In those times, a player stayed on to try and contribute if they were capable of running, no matter how much he may be hurting, and Evans would finish with a game-deciding seven goals in an eight-point win.

Captain Russell Ebert famously declared at the post-match raising of the TS Hill premiership cup: "It's been a long wait but by gee it's been worth it." Vice-captain Cunningham said the flag largely was secured with Evans' hands.

"I'm not sure how we win that game without Tim kicking seven goals, particularly after he got flattened way off the ball. It was an incredible effort to get us home that day," he says.

Heading into the 1980 season, fresh off another premiership, Evans would break all goal kicking records to that point in SA footy history.

Legend of the Game Ken Farmer, the only man in SA footy history with 1000 goals before Evans, saw his all-time season mark smashed as Evans kicked an incredible 146 for the year, breaking the ton for the first time. His biggest day out was 16 against West Adelaide at Alberton early in the season and tons would follow again in 1982 and 1984, as well as hauls of 98 and 96 in a season as he relentlessly converted opportunities.

The Magpies would win a third straight premiership in 1981 and claimed four flags in five seasons with their dominant full-forward bagging 496 goals across these five seasons, at an average of 99 per year.

Through a powerful period of success, where he was the first-choice selection for SA at full forward in an era when state football meant something, he shied away from heavy publicity and was happiest as just part of a great team.

Living quietly these days, when told of his induction earlier this year, Evans said it was a great thrill to be selected, but a personal honour had never been his reason to pull on the boots.

"I'm very honoured to be chosen in the Australian Football Hall of Fame," he said.

"I was fortunate to play with many outstanding players and team success was the reason I wanted to play the game. The greatest thrill I had was being able to achieve ultimate team success with the premierships we won.

"I want to thank my past coaches and past teammates and I'm happy that I could play my role and contribute to a successful time for Port Adelaide."

Separate to being named at full forward in Port's greatest-ever team, Evans was also an inaugural inductee into the South Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and was inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

He is also a Port Adelaide Life Member and an SANFL player Life Member and now a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame as one of the game's great goalkickers.

Tim Evans

• 59 games for Geelong 1971-74, 26 goals
• 232 games for Port Adelaide 1975-86, 1019 goals (second-most SANFL goals)
• 10 games for SA, 41 goals
• 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981 premierships
• 1977, 1978, 1980 (146), 1981, 1982 (125), 1984 (127) SANFL leading goalkicker
• 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 Port Adelaide leading goalkicker
• Port Adelaide FC Greatest Team (full forward)
• 3 x century goalkicker 1980, 1982, 1984