How King Wally’s girl, Jamie-Lee Lewis, overcame injuries, depression to realise footy dream
Born profoundly deaf, the daughter of rugby league legend Wally Lewis – Jamie-Lee – has been tested many times in her life, suffering from depression and a life-threatening injury in the past five years alone.
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JAMIE-LEE Lewis is the embodiment of strength and resilience.
Born profoundly deaf, the daughter of rugby league legend Wally Lewis has been tested many times in her life, suffering from depression and a life-threatening injury in the past five years alone.
It has pushed her to her limits, with the 29-year-old almost ready to walk away from her great love of sport two years ago. But she just keeps on coming back.
As she prepares to write her own name into the rugby league history books in this year’s inaugural QRL Women’s Premiership, the Souths Logan forward opens up to The Sunday Mail about the injury that put her life in danger, finding her feet in rugby league as the daughter of “The King” and her own ambitions to one day don the famous maroon Queensland State of Origin jumper.
JAMIE-LEE’S UNIVERSE
September 7, 2019, was a day that Jamie-Lee Lewis had been counting down to.
She had been selected to play in the Gold Coast Titans women’s invitational match and, after recently ending a six-year relationship, the game was supposed to be the light at the end of a dark tunnel.
As she ran on to Cbus Super Stadium, she saw her parents Wally and Jackie standing on the field and tears of pride ran down her cheeks.
“To see them smiling made me realise I’ve done them proud. I want to do them proud every day,” she says of that moment.
But it was a game that would quickly turn bittersweet for Lewis.
“There were only 15 minutes to go (in the game) when four girls picked me up and drove me into the ground and I’ve landed on my shoulder but they crunched me at the same time,” she said.
“The (right) collarbone snapped off the sternum but was pushing in. It was pushing into my artery and was so close to my heart. It’s a very rare sporting injury. It’s more of a car crash trauma.
“No one knew what was happening. I was screaming in so much pain.”
While she was given some pain relief, it did little to help Lewis and she was told to get back to Brisbane and to get to a hospital.
“Mum asked if I could handle the drive and I said to her, ‘just go’,” Lewis said.
“I had to put up with the pain from Robina all the way to Brisbane.
“Dad got us to hospital and lucky I did go to hospital because the doctor said if I went home, I could bleed to death. It’s happened in a case before.”
Lewis can laugh about the incident now.
But at the time, it was the toughest period of her life.
The injury, which required surgery, was compounded by her recent break-up and the two incidents hit Lewis hard.
“It felt like I’d lost my world,” she said. “Then going through that collarbone injury, it was another setback.”
She stepped back from social media and moved in with her parents for two weeks, not just to aid her recovery but her mindset.
While she said it felt like she had lost everything, Lewis had hit rock bottom before after suffering ACL ruptures in 2013 and 2017.
The first came while playing Rugby Sevens and the second happened in her first rugby league pre-season while playing a trial with the West Brisbane Panthers.
Her first ACL recovery took 15 months. Her second took two years.
“I knew what the recovery was like so I thought I could smash it,” she said of that second ACL injury.
However, 12 weeks into her recovery, at the stage when her body should have been accepting the new ligament, Lewis suffered an unfortunate collision with her 68kg French Mastiff.
This led to a spiral into depression for Lewis.
“I almost wanted to give up sport for good,” she said.
“After that I just thought, ‘if my 68kg dog can hit me, how am I going to go getting tackled?’
“It had really beaten me this time … I was panicking. That’s when my mindset went down. It hit rock-bottom. I thought, ‘I can’t do this’. I was done with sport.
“Even though I looked happy, deep down I was really unhappy and depressed.
“I am the type of girl who loves sport every day. But I didn’t see that I wasn’t happy. I put on 12kg and it wasn’t until my partner at that time gave me a good kick in the bum that I saw it. She said, ‘you’re the person who doesn’t give up easily’.”
With that strong support from her then partner, her family and her current Souths Logan teammate Steph Hancock, Lewis got herself back into the gym and eventually back on the field.
In 2019, she finally realised her dream of playing rugby league with a solid debut season with the Magpies.
“I’m really grateful I didn’t give up and I had people around me to support me and get me back up,” she said. “I didn’t want to get to my 40s and wish I didn’t give up.”
And every setback since then has just taught her another lesson.
Because, while Lewis has been through hard times, she also knows now how to heal and how to keep fighting to achieve her goals.
“I live in the moment every day,” she said.
“I’m loving life and I’m starting to love myself.
“I used to hate the word selfish because I don’t like being selfish and I like doing things for people.
“But I thought, ‘you know what, I am going to be a little bit selfish for myself because I want to love myself again and do things I like doing’.
“If I can do all this, I can get through anything.
“That’s why I say to the universe, ‘what’s the next challenge you’re going to give me?’ I know I’m going to come out stronger.”
THE ROYAL FAMILY
It will not come as a surprise to anyone that the Lewis home is a passionate “rugby league house”.
Having a father who is literally known as Queensland’s “King” of rugby league, it was always going to be hard to escape.
“It was always footy, footy, footy,” Jamie-Lee says of growing up with Wally, Jackie and her older brothers, Mitch and Lincoln.
“We watched all the games and State of Origin was my favourite time of year … that’s when you see the real Jamie.”
However, despite her devotion to the game, Lewis did not lace up the boots herself until she was 26.
She was told at a young age to stay away from contact sports to protect her cochlear implant.
She also didn’t know women played rugby league until she was in high school and an accomplished water polo player (pictured far left).
The first deaf person to represent Australia in a hearing sport, Lewis then stepped out of the pool in 2013 and took up Rugby Sevens for two years before switching to the 15-a-side format in 2016.
Then finally in 2017, it all clicked for her.
“I’ve known football all my life but I didn’t think about rugby league,” she said.
“I thought to myself, ‘why didn’t I start this earlier?’. I wasn’t really allowed to play full contact sport … the implant could come out or move.
“But I just thought, ‘why don’t I give it a go?’. I knew headgear would help me.
“I spoke to my surgeon first and he thought I was capable of doing it.”
For Lewis, she never really viewed being deaf as too much of a setback.
While she had moments when she feared she would be teased for wearing headgear in non-contact sports such as netball and touch football, it was something she had known her whole life.
And, with the help of her parents, she adapted to it.
It is how she learnt her resilience and determination.
“Mum’s the reason why I never let deafness stop me,” she said.
“She tells me, ‘you be you, don’t ever change for anyone’. Mum is unreal. She wants everyone to take every opportunity they can.
“Mum knew I’d be the sporty one and I just happened to have Dad’s genes.
“Mum said, ‘ever since you were in my tummy, I knew you were going to be a sportsperson because you just kept kicking my stomach around like a football’.
“Dad was very laid back. He didn’t want to put pressure on any of us. He wanted us to do what we want and what makes us happy. I just happened to be the one that’s following in his footsteps.”
However, even though he never wanted to pressure his kids to play rugby league, Wally Lewis is naturally one very proud father.
While the Wynnum Manly great is still getting used to the sight of his daughter in the Souths Logan colours, he loves nothing more than watching her in action.
“It’s a proud moment watching your daughter play and it makes me experience the same sort of nerves as most parents,” he said.
“She’s been very good at all the sports she’s turned her hand to so far but this one is a little closer to the heart for me. She doesn’t lack any determination, that’s for sure.”
And determination is exactly what Lewis has as she heads into the next chapter of her rugby league career.
A LEWIS IN MAROON AGAIN?
It has been nearly 29 years since the world last saw Wally Lewis in a Queensland jersey, with “The King” retiring from State of Origin just hours after leading the Maroons to the 1991 series victory – the same day he learnt his daughter was deaf.
But it might not have been the last time we see a Lewis in maroon.
The QRLW will kick off next Saturday, and Lewis is ready to put her best foot forward for her Souths Logan teammates, her ever supportive family, her coach Rob Brough and for herself and her own dreams.
“It’s absolutely amazing because it’s finally come around. It’s been such a long time coming,” she said.
“There’s been times where I’ve been like, ‘I just want to be like my Dad’.
“No matter what sport it is, I just want to be like him, doing something for your country, your state.
“Playing for Queensland, that would be my goal … I also wouldn’t mind an NRLW contract. I’m putting all the hard yards in while I can.
“I’m hoping with the QRLW, I can prove everything I can … If you want it bad enough, you can get it.”
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