The 21-year-old and eight of his contemporaries had been ordered to the club to attend a two-day camp in the agricultural town of Ballan, located 78km northwest of Melbourne.
They were told the camp would be "hard but enjoyable". They were told there would be water involved. Everitt wore his thongs. James Mulligan brought a boogie board.
They weren't told the program would be run by Jamie Bobrowski, a man who has worked with the SAS and Special Operations Group. They also weren't told the camp would soon be renamed the "hurt camp", and that it was designed to push its participants to their physical and psychological limits.
"It was for the people they thought didn't have much mental toughness," Everitt explained.
"With me, I knew it was because of my competitiveness as well and a few of the other boys were like that in the first couple of years.
"It was teaching us how to go that little extra bit when you thought you couldn't go anymore."
Everitt, Mulligan, Jordan Roughead, Liam Jones, Jarrad Grant, Brennan Stack, Josh Hill, Jamason Daniels and Easton Wood were the lucky ones - or unlucky - chosen to take the two-night challenge.
Together, they encountered a full night of sleep deprivation, the monotonous task of carrying a wet rope around for 17 hours straight and strict discipline (where offenders were punished for swearing or spitting).
And, just when they thought it was all over when Saturday morning dawned, it was back to the club for a training session with the rest of the list.
"It was designed for them to cope with hurdles and things that were unexpected, and help them learn not to drop their bundle and how to push through such things," coach Rodney Eade said.
"It was also designed to help their leadership and to see who would take the bit between their teeth to find a solution and help their mates rather than say, 'This is too hard'."
Everitt said while there weren't "many highlights", it forced the group to become a cohesive unit.
"We had to do max push ups a few times and if you got in trouble you had to stand there with the rope for 20 minutes and you weren't allowed to talk," he said.
"If the rope hit the ground, you were punished too. It was all about teaching us how to work together with little activities and helping and pushing each other through.
"Every time we walked past this massive damn, we had to throw the rope in there to make it heavier."
Everitt said immediately after the camp the participants' attitude towards training improved and he no longer felt limited in his ability.
"You can tell with all the other boys as well they've really stepped up their pre-season and trained well since then," he said.
"A good example was when we had to do maximum push ups and Jarrad Grant got 12 or something the first time because he was buggered, and then two minutes later we had to do it again and he pushed out 34.
"He had that challenge and wanted to respond. It was definitely an eye opener and it helped me so much."
