AFL 2023: Hawthorn forward Mitch Lewis opens up on his pre-season knee injury setback
Hawthorn’s Mitch Lewis knows he has big shoes to fill and his latest injury could not have come at a worse time, but he remains positive despite the impact it could have on his club.
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Mitch Lewis has tried to look at the silver lining.
Facing 12 weeks on the sidelines is a lot better than 12 months.
Acknowledging the outcome could have been much worse, the star Hawthorn forward considers himself “quite fortunate” an anterior cruciate ligament sprain he suffered late last month — curtailing an encouraging pre-season — has avoided the need for surgery.
Having overcome the knee troubles which ended his 2022 campaign early, it was an untimely setback for the Hawk who has emerged as one of the most important pieces on Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell’s chess board as the club rebuilds to become a power again.
This injury, unrelated to the issue he faced last season but to the same knee, is set to sideline Lewis for the start of the home-and-away campaign with the 24-year-old hoping to be back in the “early parts of the season”.
But the goalkicker has tried to see the positives in his pre-season injury blow.
“It has been a setback but the silver lining in it all — 12 weeks sounds a lot better than 12 months,” Lewis said.
“I have managed to see the silver lining and take a little bit of good from something bad.
“I have avoided surgery …. a lot of the people I spoke to after it were like ‘So you’re out for 12 months, you’re getting surgery?’. I had to explain to them that it wasn’t all doom and gloom. I’m OK, I’m not dead.
“It will be around that three-month sort of injury so I count myself quite fortunate in the end.
“It was the same knee as last year, but a completely separate injury. I just thought that I might have aggravated something from last year. But scans confirmed that it was a completely different mechanism.
“But knowing that it is a completely separate injury to what I had last year gives me a lot of confidence that it will heal back to 100 per cent and I’ll be fit and firing.”
Only the week before his setback, Lewis had spoken about how buoyed he had been by his pre-season as he prepared to embark on his journey as the Hawks’ main man in attack after a breakout 2022 campaign.
It was an innocuous incident and Lewis was initially unaware he had done much damage.
“The incident itself was so minor,” Lewis said.
“It happened halfway through training, it was our first match simulation and I finished the rest of the session and it felt absolutely fine.
“I did touch and some contested marking at the end of the session and it wasn’t until later that day and the next morning that it pulled up a little bit tight.
“It was a big surprise when the doc said I had sprained the ACL ... from the scans the docs and physios were pretty confident that it wouldn’t need surgery.”
Lewis has started running on the AlterG and managed a “bit of a shuffle-walk” on land this week, but the club is being cautious with his return to training.
“I haven’t got a definitive game or date (to return), the docs and physios have been pretty adamant they are just going to let it heal biologically and these things take time,” Lewis said.
“But I am certainly confident that I am going to be back in the early parts of the season, obviously missing round one.
“Walking around, I feel fine and I really want to progress in terms of running and intensity. But the docs and physios are continually pulling me back and making sure that the knee is fully recovered before I step out and do anything that will jeopardise my return.
“There is just a little bit of lingering swelling just after my running sessions that they just want to clear up before I can step it up.”
THE MAIN MAN
As far as players the Hawks’ could ill-afford to be sidelined ahead of the season, Lewis would have to be near the top of the list.
One of the biggest improvers not just at Hawthorn, but in the competition last season, Lewis kicked 37 goals from 15 games before injury ended his campaign early in round 20.
Named the Hawks’ most improved player, Lewis kicked three goals or more in nine matches, including five-goal hauls against Port Adelaide in round 2 and Adelaide in round 17.
Proving himself a sharpshooter, Lewis recorded a shot at goal accuracy of 66 per cent in 2022 – ranked No. 1 of the top 50 players across the competition for shots.
He was ranked elite for goals per game and above average for disposals, contested marks, forward 50 marks and score involvements as a key forward.
But if Lewis was important to the Hawks last season, then he will be even more so in 2023.
For the first time since 2011, the Hawks will be missing sharpshooter Jack Gunston from their forward set-up.
A three-time leading Hawthorn goalkicker, Gunston joined midfielders Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara in departing the club during the off-season trade period, joining his third AFL club at Brisbane.
Now, entering his seventh season at the club, Lewis is prepared to take on more of a leadership role in the Hawks’ forward line.
“I have chatted to ‘Newy’ (forward line coach Chris Newman) to discuss my role within the group and it will be more of a leadership role this year, which is quite exciting,” Lewis said.
“I’m definitely one of the more senior guys now. In terms of players, I think I have been at the footy club for like the fourth-longest time in terms of years, which is pretty crazy.
“Seven years ago I didn’t think I would be sitting in this spot, but it’s nice to have that bit of extra responsibility going into this year.
“Obviously ‘Gunners’ will be a bit of a loss and we were really sad to see him go, but I’m really hopeful that some other guys can step up.
“I reckon Jacob Koschitzke will have a big year this year as well as younger guys like Jai Serong or even a Ferg Greene to come into our forward line and play a role. So I’m excited at the prospect of those guys.”
While he has found it “bloody annoying” watching on as the Hawks’ pre-season preparations heat up, Lewis has used the time on the sidelines to help develop his leadership skills.
“I took care of the forward line for the Box Hill side in the intra club (this week) and I have really enjoyed, even in this short time off, helping out the younger guys,” said Lewis, second in the club goal kicking to Luke Breust last year.
“I feel like if I can do a little bit of coaching, when I get back to playing, I will see the game a lot more clearer, which will be beneficial.”
THE DEAL
Leading into the 2022 season, the signature of the off-contract Lewis had been considered one of the most important for the Hawks to secure.
An exciting key-position talent the club could build around.
The Hawks locked down the rising key forward last June for another four seasons, tying him to the club until at least the end of 2026.
Lewis said there had never been any doubt that he would remain a Hawk.
“I was always pretty keen to stay,” Lewis said.
“I feel absolutely at home at the footy club and super confident in the direction ‘Mitch’ (Sam Mitchell) and the boys are headed.
“We are a young group and we are full of energy and it’s really good to be part of.”
Aside from securing his footballing future, the long-term deal gave him the same opportunity away from the field.
“I was able to buy a house earlier this year, so that (new deal) helped with that,” Lewis said.
“I have been looking for a while and that was always a dream of mine to own my own house, so to be able to lock down a longer-term deal made that a reality, which is nice.”
GOLF AND GOALS
Away from the football field, Lewis has always been a keen golfer.
As a kid growing up in Wallan, in Melbourne’s north, Lewis lived next to a golf course and, from the age of five or six, used to jump the back fence and onto the first green.
Now as a footballer, Lewis has tapped into the principles of golf to aid his goalkicking.
While he admitted his swing wasn’t quite as honed as he would like at the moment, he has developed an approach to goalkicking that mirrors his approach hitting the golf ball.
“Hopefully my goalkicking does not go the way my golf swing is going at the moment because I’m not in the best form,” Lewis said.
“But when I’m hitting a golf ball I try to think of just having a nice smooth swing and it’s all about the timing and being nice and smooth.
“So goalkicking for me is the exact same. Nice and relaxed on the approach, I take four walking steps and four jogging and then just try to kick to all the targets.
“With golf I line up toward the target and I do the same with my goalkicking.
“I think it came from David Rath (Hawthorn’s former head of strategy and innovation) in my early days at Hawthorn. He was a master of kicking and different sorts of kicks and using the feeling off your foot to kick the ball a certain way.
“He made that connection with golf so it sort of stuck with me.”
It’s not the only outside-the-square approach Lewis has adopted to help his game.
In a bid to improve his grip, Lewis keeps putty at hand to squeeze and strengthen his hands and forearms and, in turn, help his marking.
“Our hand therapist, Hamish Anderson, he loves getting a mention, he started to get a lot of the guys onto the putty just to strengthen your grip and all-round strength within your hands and your forearms,” Lewis said.
“It’s a marginal game, but marking is a pretty important part of my game, so anything that I can do to help it I will do it.”
BOUNCING BACK
Lewis has long felt like he has had a point to prove on the football field.
From being overlooked for junior rep teams to having to wait until the second-last selection in the 2016 national draft to have his name called out, the Hawks’ spearhead has been striving to prove “the doubters wrong”.
“I feel like I’ve had a point to prove my whole football career,” Lewis said.
“You know, when I was 15 or 16, I didn’t make any rep sides and even in my under-18 year, I did not make the Vic Metro state side.
“So we are proving the doubters wrong all throughout the career which is nice.
“Hopefully, I can continue to have a really long career.”
Lewis credited time in the system and a new approach to marking his own form for allowing his game to flourish last year.
“I was really pleased with what I was able to do individually, especially with where the club is headed as well,” Lewis said.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of young guys now that are helping my progression.
“Everybody says it’s time in the system, feeling more confident within the group, but there was a couple of guys around the footy club — (assistant coach, contest) Adrian Hickmott got brought in who was really good for my development and more the mental side of the game, so he was a massive help.
“I was really hard on myself, especially in my first few years. If I made a mistake, I would get down on myself for quite a period of time but he just taught me to bounce back pretty quickly.”
As he strives to overcome his latest setback, Lewis was confident he could build on the form he showed last season when he returned to the field.
“A lot of what I am doing in my rehab is visualisation and making sure that I am still ticking my brain over in terms of the things that I need to do well on game day, whether it be marking or goalkicking,” Lewis said.
“So, I am just trying to tick my mind over that way at the moment.
“People that speak to me, know that over the last couple of years I have built a really strong base and I have got a strong self belief in my capabilities when I can return.”
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