By Peter Ryan
As a myth-making business, the AFL environment is elite.
Sometimes that means an easy narrative becomes attached to a player that isn’t an exact fit.
Humphries looked at home in his first final with his kicking superbCredit: Getty Images
So it is with Geelong sensation Lawson Humphries.
Most view the 21-year-old as the Cats’ latest recruiting miracle, a player who seemingly stepped directly from the Swan Districts reserves into a starring role in an AFL qualifying final on Adelaide Oval.
He laughs when asked about the story that often accompanies the mention of his name.
“It’s funny. I have actually said to a few people I played more league games than reserves. I just played the finals in the ‘ressies’,” Humphries said.
“Everybody says ‘he’s a ressies player’. I did actually play league for most of the year. It makes the story sound better, so I will let them run with it.”
At the risk of making his story sound worse, and diminishing Geelong’s recruiting masterstroke, it’s worth telling the Humphries tale in full as a reminder that he’s not an overnight sensation.
The youngster from the small town of Wickham in the Pilbara was on scouts’ radars as a junior, making the state under-16 team after being picked to play for the Flying Boomerangs in 2018, aged just 14, having starred with the under-15s WA Kickstart side.
He moved to Perth to board at Hale School for four years, partly because of his football but mainly because he and his family wanted to give him every opportunity for a good education.
Humphries impressed as he progressed through school – his mind blown at one stage that he could head to South America and the Galapagos Islands as part of the biology program– and became a prefect, with not only skills on both sides of his body but an enquiring mind.
Lawson Humphries’ attitude has impressed Geelong as much as his football, with his dad Ross presenting him with his debut jumper.Credit: AFL Photos
That led him into the Nic Naitanui Academy as part of the Eagles’ Next Generation Academy, and also eventually into studying anthropology – which he returned to online midway through his season – as he looked to follow his father Ross’ footsteps into working in the culture and heritage space in the mines.
“It’s pretty good pay,” Humphries joked.
He laboured away in the reserves at Swan Districts through 2022 after playing in their colts flag without really being fit or getting recruiters excited, and was overlooked in two drafts.
In the summer of 2022 he decided he was unfit and needed to knuckle down ahead of the 2023 season. He worked with sprint coach Peter Edmiston and took his football preparation seriously.
“To be a good sprinter, and to be able to run fast, you need to practise it and my dad and my pop were really good runners, and I wasn’t running really well so I felt like I needed to change it up,” Humphries said. “I came back in 2023 so much faster and more confident to take people on and drive my legs out of contests.”
It took him until round eight to make his WAFL debut with Swan Districts as the Cats’ recruiters began to take notice.
Lawson Humphries’ marking is an underrated part of his game.Credit: AFL Photos
Such had been his form, he would take out the club’s reserves best and fairest award and rookie of the year after returning for the finals, having spent the rest of the season in the seniors. He then ran three seconds in the 20-metre sprint and 8.28 seconds on the agility test at the AFL Draft Combine. His two-kilometre time was under seven minutes too.
Geelong knew his character and were taken by his football ability, deciding after making a late call to his coach Andrew Pruyn before using pick 63 at the national draft to choose him, rather than risk losing him in the rookie draft.
Humphries had risen fast and kept doing so at Geelong under the tutelage of development coach Nigel Lappin, where his kicking has been elite despite holding the bottom of the ball like he’s holding a plate before release on his left, with a more natural motion obvious on his right. He can mark and join in waves of attack with repeat running.
“I’ve done a lot of work over the last couple of years on backing my own ability, Greg Harding at Swan Districts and Nigel Lappin have just instilled me with a lot of confidence,” Humphries said.
“Realistically I know I am not going to hit 100 per cent of the kicks I take. I would like to, obviously, but you are not going to. I would rather make mistakes trying to do the right thing than trying to protect that and not actually have an impact on the game.”
His impact on the Cats has been enormous, returning after the bye from his hometown, where he took Wickham Wolves training in mid-June, to be one of the best players on the ground in a qualifying final, in just his 10th AFL match.
He has confidence in his ability, but his path has made him realise how much he has left to learn. Humphries hasn’t let the narrative that surrounds him take over his mindset.
“I hear it a bit, but I try not to read too much into it because that’s when you start to get a bit content with it,” he said. “People say ‘you have done so well’. I feel like I have so much more development to go to improve myself as a player, and improve myself as a person.”
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