From Adelaide, Wilkins was relatively unknown to the wider footballing public, but he had a good first season with the Roos.
Talking to NMFC.com.au, Wilkins spoke of his journey from school football to the AFL.
“A few games after I started playing reserves for Norwood, I was approached by Brady (Rawlings) and Mark (Finnigan).
“They gave me a call and said we’d like to meet you and have a chat. So they came over and asked a few questions. Then we had a follow up chat not too far away from the Draft.”
Considering Wilkins missed the latter stages of the season after injuring his shoulder, the timing of the meeting couldn’t have been better.
Wilkins quickly discovered Brad Scott and the coaching staff placed a real emphasis on the character of potential North recruits.
“Obviously they knew what sort of footballer I am because they saw me play and now they were interested in getting a read on what sort of person I was.”
Once the interviews were out of the way, the big day arrived. But there was one minor inconvenience for Wilkins to endure first.
“The day of the Draft, I had my Year 12 graduation. It was boring, I sat in a hot, stuffy hall for four hours and then I got out and went straight home to watch the Draft.
“After I got picked up, Dad said to me, ‘you’re one of very few kids to graduate and then four hours later have a full time job!’ It’s not a bad first job to have.”
In many ways the craziness of Wilkins’ ‘first job’ had just begun.
“After I got drafted, I think Bryce (Lewis) played it pretty well. He knew my phone would be ringing off the hook so he waited a while to give me a buzz,” Wilkins explained.
“The next day Brady Rawlings came over and explained the whole process. He said you’re going to be in Melbourne in two days and then another two days after that you’ll be in Utah for the start of pre-season.
“You don’t really get time to let it sink in because you go from Adelaide to Melbourne to America in the space of four days.
“Then I was in Utah for a week and a half and it’s back to Melbourne, so it did take a couple of months to get fully settled.”
With a full year behind him, Wilkins has just started his first full pre-season. It’s free of the problems which hampered his first months.
“When I got drafted I was still recovering from my shoulder injury so I wasn’t able to participate in a lot of last pre-season.
“I had a program to follow over the off-season and I was pretty happy with where I came back with a good solid two kilometre time trial.
“Having a proper pre-season I’ll be going to Utah in pretty good nick and hopefully staying ahead of the curve with my fitness.”
After putting on approximately eight kilograms, Wilkins is more than halfway to his goal weight.
“I’ve got a pretty high metabolism so it’s tough for me to put on weight in the pre-season with all the running that’s happening.
“It means I have to eat even more and stay on the protein shakes but it’s pretty tough. I’m still aiming to put on about five to six more kilograms.”
