How Mitch Lewis defied his own doubts

Hawthorn’s Mitch Lewis after his return game against Port Adelaide in round 19, 2025. Pictures: AFL Photos

MITCH Lewis knew as soon as he answered the call that it was the worst-case scenario. He had barely left Epworth Eastern when he had to pull his Hilux off the Eastern Freeway. Uncontrollable tears streamed down his face. Just when he’d come to terms with his season being over, he was now facing 12 months on the sidelines. 

This wasn’t the outcome he’d envisaged with when his partner, Shelbea Murphy, drove him back up the highway from Geelong two days earlier. Hawthorn knew he had done his medial collateral ligament in his first game back in three months, but thought he had escaped a dreaded torn anterior cruciate ligament. 

Club doctor Liam West helped the key forward shuffle off the ground after he was collected by Geelong defender Jake Kolodjashnij while going back with the flight of the ball. Lewis was only concerned about his head in that moment. Blood was gushing from his scalp, courtesy of an errant elbow. Ten staples were required to patch him up. He thought he’d be right to go back on, but then he tried to change direction on the boundary. His comeback was over.

Inside the away rooms at GMHBA Stadium, Lewis started screaming, letting out the pent-up frustration of a wasted year. He hadn’t played since he strained his hamstring on Easter Monday. Since then, a kneecap issue had lingered, preventing him from training, let alone playing. His return in round 17 was only his fourth game of the season, but it was supposed to provide him with enough time to regain form and fitness to salvage something from the year.

In the 90-minute drive home that Saturday night last July, Lewis had simmered. His mindset had changed: 2024 was the year of the injury, 2025 would be the return. He was cleared of concussion the following day, but his knee had blown up. It was sore, real sore.

A scan was required to reveal the extent of the damage. The problem is nothing is open on a Sunday. When he completed the MRI first thing Monday morning in Box Hill, he messaged West to let him know. This is standard procedure so the club doctor can log in remotely and assess the scan. It was worse than expected. Far worse. Lewis was approaching the Eastlink tunnel in Ringwood when the call arrived that changed everything. 

“You could tell as soon as he [Liam West] spoke that something wasn’t quite right and he didn’t want to lie. He basically said there is some signalling around the ACL that indicates a full tear,” Lewis said.

“After that, I’m not sure what else he said. I just remember going numb because I’d already got my head around that it was just the MCL, that I was going to be fine for the start of next year, go again like you’ve done many times before. Unfortunately this is a conversation that I’ve had to have with myself a few times, get my head around an injury and go again.

“He basically told me to get into the footy club and they would tell me more. When I got off the phone to ‘Westy’ I just had uncontrollable tears. I had to get off the freeway because I was going to lose control of my car. Not sure what exit it was, but I found a place to park and let it all out for a little bit.”

When Lewis pulled up at the Hawthorn Football Club in Mulgrave 20 minutes later he couldn’t find a park. If you aren’t early, good luck finding one near the entrance. Only a dozen cars fit underneath the Sir Kenneth Luke Stand. They aren’t reserved for players. But after driving around for 10 infuriating minutes, he called then property steward John Cavarra and pleaded for him to open downstairs. It then took him another 10 minutes to summon himself out of his car and up the lift.

James Sicily was waiting for him. The captain went through a knee reconstruction in 2020 and was the first player in the building to learn of the diagnosis. “That was the moment I realised I’d actually done it,” Lewis said. “He just gives me a big hug and says I’m here for you every step of the way. With his history with his ACL, I was just like, ‘I’ve fully done it here’. There were a lot of people around doing their post-game assessments, I just walk straight to the doc’s office and closed the door.”

Mitch Lewis and James Sicily embrace after Hawthorn’s win over Geelong in round five, 2022. Picture: AFL Photos

Head physiotherapist Andrew Lambart is part of the furniture at Hawthorn. He arrived at the club when the Hawks were still based out of a crumbling Glenferrie Oval in 2004 and was awarded life membership in 2018. He delivered the full confirmation to Lewis inside the doctor’s office. There is no way to soften the blow. A 95 per cent tear of his right ACL. A full knee reconstruction is required. Lewis can’t stop crying.

“I didn’t realise I had so many tears in my body,” Lewis said. “I just broke down and let it all out. They were trying to make me feel better, but I zoned out, didn’t listen to much, I couldn’t.” Now he needs to leave the club and tell Shelbea. “First person I called was Shelbs and told her it was ACL. This whole thing has been so brutal for her, as well. I go through the physical stuff, but psychologically she goes through as much as I do.”

That was July 8, 2024. A day, cruelly, etched into Lewis’ memory. Across the past 10 months, AFL.com.au was provided inner sanctum access to the key forward’s return from a knee reconstruction. From medical appointments to fitness testing, to all the key figures who have helped Lewis recover physically and mentally. Here is how Lewis put his body back together.

SURGERY

Lewis underwent surgery at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond on the morning of July 23, once the swelling had subsided. Prof. Tim Whitehead is one of Australia’s leading orthopaedic surgeons and has become adept at reassuring terrified footballers that they will be able to get back to the player they were – it will just be a long road back.

Working alongside Julian Feller – the surgeon who has been the first port of call for high-profile footballers seeking a solution to their knee problems for decades – Whitehead has increased the volume of footballers he has completed knee reconstructions on over the past six years. He works closely with Hawthorn, North Melbourne and St Kilda, where he helped Paddy Dow recover from a nightmare infection over Christmas that required three bouts of surgery and hospitalised the former top-three pick for almost three weeks.

Lewis is put under a general anaesthetic and Whitehead gets to work. For such a serious injury, the whole operation is rather swift, lasting just over 30 minutes. Since 2016, the surgery hasn’t just encompassed an ACL reconstruction but also a lateral tenodesis. This involves removing a strip of tissue, roughly 1cm thick and 8-10cm long, from the iliotibial band on the outer side of the knee and relocating it beneath the lateral collateral ligament. Studies have shown this addition reduces the chance of the graft failing down the track by up to 50 per cent.

“There are two aspects to his surgery, which are pretty well established for all AFL footballers. It starts with an ACL reconstruction, which in his case we used a quads tendon graft. You can use hamstring or quads, but in Mitch’s case it worked for him that we used his quad. I was conscious that he is a big, tall athlete and a nice, strong piece of tissue from the quads is more reliable and going to give you a thicker graft. That was one of the reasons,” Prof. Whitehead said.

“The second part now is they all get a lateral tenodesis. It is a tightening up of the outside part of the knee, which has been shown to reduce graft failure by up to 50 per cent in active people. We do that routinely in anyone who is playing sport at any reasonable level or young people, so those at higher risk of graft failure. They are always going to get a tenodesis now at the same time. We’ve been doing that since 2016, but it has got to a point now in my practice where nearly 50 per cent of my ACLs now have the tenodesis as well. The reason we do that is we try to reduce the chance the graft fails down the track.”

Mitch Lewis at a Hawthorn training session at Waverley Park on March 18, 2025. Picture: Getty Images/AFL Photos

Footballers fear a torn ACL more than any other injury. It has been this way for decades. They know how long it takes to recover. And fret they will be forgotten, aware footy can have a short memory. Even Sam Butler’s horrific double leg break in the VFL months earlier – and the 30-minute wait for an ambulance to arrive at Box Hill City Oval – is preferable. At least, to most. The knee injury isn’t anywhere near as painful, usually confirmed with a loud pop, but many worry they will never return the same player.

For a long time, they never returned at all. The cruciate ligaments have been known about since ancient Egyptian times, but it wasn’t until American doctor Kenneth Jones published his surgical technique in a 1963 journal that it made an impact on Australian football. Pioneering Victorian orthopaedic surgeon John Grant read about the radical alternative called Jones Surgery when he was working as North Melbourne’s doctor and surgeon. Grant taught himself the technique and then saved the career of Kangaroos great Peter Steward by completing the surgery in 1964. Steward returned for the opening game of 1966 and barely missed a game before moving to West Perth in 1971, where he played five seasons in the WAFL.

Hall of Fame legend Peter Hudson would become the fourth player Grant completed a knee reconstruction on. The champion forward famously kicked eight goals in his return at Waverley Park in 1973 after he flew from the airport in a helicopter. Mr 5.64 – Hudson still holds the VFL/AFL’s highest goal-per-game career average – didn’t play again that season due to a knee cartilage injury and only managed one more full season in the VFL due to knee issues. Medical advancements have saved many careers since then. 

Since the start of the AFL era in 1990, the recovery time has traditionally been 12 months, although there have been some exceptions to the rule. Western Bulldogs great Tony Liberatore famously returned in just 18 weeks in 1998, going down in round five only to play again in round 21. Sydney premiership hero Nick Malceski was the first player to undergo a LARS reconstruction in 2008 and returned in 12 weeks, but reinjured his knee. Gore-Tex grafts were in vogue for a hot minute, but have since been opted against due to the graft fraying from abrasion. Dan McStay and Sam Docherty returned much faster than most in 2024, but given Lewis’ history with knee issues, Hawthorn was never going to rush this one. While Essendon, Richmond and Brisbane have been ravaged by ACL tears in the past two seasons, the Hawks haven’t had to deal with too many knee reconstructions of late. Clubs have dealt on average with less than one ACL tear per season over the past five years.

RECOVERY

Three days after surgery, Lewis was far sorer than everyone expected. He couldn’t stand up for long, so a shower chair was purchased for home. Only Shelbea could see the funny side of the purchase at the time. There were no signs of infection – the club was hypervigilant – but Lewis returned to see Whitehead at his rooms at OrthSport Victoria (OSVi) on Bridge Road just to ensure everything was progressing smoothly. Better to be safe than sorry.

Hawthorn rehab coordinator Jack Price enters the picture immediately after surgery. No one from the Hawks will spend more time with Lewis over the next six months. They were sent a few hundred metres down the road to Epworth Imaging. It took 20 minutes to get there. Lewis sat down three times. The scan cleared him of blood clots and other concerns, but the key forward was off to a slow start.  

For the first fortnight, Lewis became accustomed to a device he would use more than anything else in rehab. The Compex muscle stimulator involves electrodes being stuck to the quads that send electrical signals to the major leg muscle. It is the way to turn the quads on as soon as possible. Across the next month, Lewis started bodyweight squats, seated leg extension, calf raises and band-resisted glute work. It took him six weeks to get going. By that stage, Hawthorn had really got going, recovering from a 0-5 start to the season to capture the attention of the football world one Marcus Rashford celebration and TikTok at a time. The additions of Nick Watson, Jack Ginnivan and Calsher Dear helped the ‘Hollywood Hawks’ win 11 of the final 13 games of the home and away season to clinch a finals spot for the first time since 2018. But if you’re not in the 23, cruelly, you don’t feel a part of it.

Will Day picked Lewis up on the way to the the elimination final against the Western Bulldogs on September 5. They watched on, alongside 97,828 people at the MCG, as Hawthorn won its first final since the 2015 Grand Final. The rooms were pulsing in a state of pandemonium and delirium in the aftermath. Day was missing after sustaining a complex collarbone injury against Richmond in round 23. He was a remote chance to return the following week, but being close isn’t close enough, which is why the pair quietly slipped out and got back in the car beneath the MCC Members’ Reserve, driving out onto Brunton Avenue, away from the celebrations that reverberated around Yarra Park and Richmond.

Hawthorn players celebrate their win over the Western Bulldogs in the 2024 elimination final. Picture: AFL Photos

“You try and just be as happy as you can, but at the end of the day it’s a natural response to having that feeling of you just want to be a part of it, so it was a strange one to unpack. You sort of feel guilty that you are not truly loving it like the rest of your teammates,” Day explained.

“We were in the rooms, and we were so happy for everyone, but you can’t help but think ‘I’m not a part of it now’. I remember getting in the car with ‘Mitta’ [Lewis] on the way home and we were driving home and sort of saying how cool it was for the boys, but I couldn’t help but think about how he was feeling because he knew he definitely wasn’t going to play. I was optimistic, but deep down I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play, so in that car ride home it was this weird mix of emotions of how good is this for the club, but then on the other end you can’t actually truly be a part of it.”

Will Day grimaces in pain after injuring his collarbone in round 23, 2024. Picture: AFL Photos

The Peter Crimmins Medal was another night to endure, not enjoy. Lewis became good at hiding how he was feeling. People are going through far worse, he thought, but when you’ve only played four games, you don’t feel like you contributed to the season, no matter what people say. Like the elimination final, he exited into the night after Jai Newcombe won his first best and fairest by holding off Dylan Moore at Crown Palladium.

Players flee far and wide after the best and fairest. Most aren’t due back until the end of November, even early December. This is, essentially, the only opportunity to travel overseas. Lewis would have travelled to America again with Moore, Day, Newcombe, Jack Scrimshaw and Connor Macdonald to watch former teammate Jackson Ross punting for the University of Tennessee. They had visited Knoxville in 2023 and seen him punt at Neyland Stadium in front of 102,000 people.

Instead, Lewis wasn’t going anywhere. He spent most of October and November at Waverley Park, following a program that had been meticulously mapped out for him. The exercises were simple to start with, but became incrementally harder inside the gym on level two. It was lonely work at a time when he wanted to be overseas. When he wasn’t there, he spent time ticking off uni work for his teaching degree at Deakin University. Anything to distract himself. 

When Lewis ran for the first time on the $80,000 Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill on October 18, the group had just finished a training session at Exos Sports in Dallas and surprised him on FaceTime. Day and Moore had kept in contact with Jenni Screen, who joined the club a year earlier and is now Hawthorn’s head of leadership and player development. The former Opals guard has become an underrated piece of the puzzle at Hawthorn, leaning on her own injury battles to help guide players dealing with setbacks. Connection is crucial in elite sport. Little gestures, like this, add up.

Then on October 30, Lewis ran for the first time on grass under the supervision of Andrew Lambart, the man who has helped everyone recover from injuries at Hawthorn this century. Before Shane Crawford shouted “That’s what I’m talking about!” on the premiership dais in 2008, Lambart played his part in solving Crawford’s knee riddle. Trent Croad’s foot was one of the more mysterious to solve, while Cyril Rioli’s hamstrings required plenty of work to get the mercurial star back out there.  

Mitch Lewis and Andrew Lambart on the day of Lewis’ first run after a knee reconstruction. Picture: Supplied

Hawthorn will move into its shimmering new $113 million training and administration base, Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley, later this year, but Waverley Park has everything Lewis needs to put his body back together, including a pool. But variety is needed to save his sanity. Foundry Athletic wasn’t far from his home, so during the off-season, Lewis divided his time between the football club and the elite high performance centre in Cheltenham. Three times a week he did his rehab there, starting his day that way. A change can be (almost) as good as a holiday.

By the time the players started filing back in November and the senior group started full-time in December, Price added a new stop to Lewis’ program. After a slow first six weeks, Lewis caught up by the three-month milestone. He hit the right markers: single-leg squats through range, repeat single-leg hops, leg press bodyweight x three reps. The gymnastics centre at the State Basketball Centre, where NBL franchise South East Melbourne Phoenix is based, provides a place to train on trampolines and sprung floors in preparation for a trip that is in the works, but not yet confirmed.

PHILADELPHIA

IN A COUNTRY of over 340 million people, only one person owns almost every AFL guernsey. They are framed with signatures of past and present stars scribbled on them, hanging on the walls of a facility in Philadelphia. This is where athletes from all over the globe have flocked for decades to work with Bill Knowles. Golf legend Tiger Woods, English rugby union fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, tennis great Andy Murray, NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and baseball champion Alex Rodriguez have all visited Knowles Athletic to recover from long-term injuries, predominantly knee reconstructions.

Knowles Athletic is based out of YSC Sports, a soccer, flag football and lacrosse venue that has two fields inside and three outside. It isn’t overtly flashy, like Qatar sports medicine hot spot Aspetar, but that’s by design. Knowles has created a bespoke program, using his 35 years of experience, rather than relying on technology. Getting time with him is hard to secure – and expensive – but the benefits are why players like Nic Naitanui, Callan Ward and Sam Docherty have travelled to Pennsylvania, following in the footsteps of Max Rooke, who first went over in 2010.

Lewis needed the mental respite, almost as much as he needed the intellectual property. It was late January, much later than he first planned on heading to America before he did his knee. The silver lining of the injury was being here now, deep in the NFL post-season, instead of October when the games don’t matter as much.

James Blanck, Bill Knowles, Mitch Lewis and Jack Price at Knowles Athletic in Philadelphia in February 2025. Picture: Supplied

James Blanck was a bit further advanced in his own rehabilitation and made the trip, too, with rehab co-ordinator Jack Price. They landed in Philadelphia late on January 25. The next day they were inside Lincoln Financial Field to witness the Philadelphia Eagles set an NFC championship game record, scoring 55 points against the Washington Commanders to secure a Super Bowl LIX berth. Those tickets would have been almost impossible to secure, but there is only one AFL club with a development coach who punted in the NFL. Arryn Siposs wasn’t known for throwing ‘Hail Mary’ passes during his time over there, but he threw one here. “I knew it was a long shot, but you’ve got to ask early,” Siposs remarked. Just under 70,000 people can cram into Philadelphia’s stadium, but somehow, all three got a ticket, courtesy of Siposs’ front office contacts. It’s all about who you know, not what you know.

“The first couple of days were really simple, just bending movements into the knee, the glute connection but with your leg muscles. Ankle, knee, hip, he used to say, everything has to be stacked correctly. A lot of it was just moving into those and starting to feel comfortable. It was a lot of bending. Halfway through the second day I thought, f***ing hell, my knee is cooked here. It was the patellofemoral joint pain,” Lewis said.

“But it was the best thing that could have happened when I was over there because he was able to assess what was going on. Bill has seen athletes from all over the world, every single knee injury you could think of, so he has strategies and ways to work around it. The biggest difficulty we found at the club was trying to find exercises in the gym that didn’t induce pain for me. He was able to provide some straight away that were good, just by changing an angle. Instead of a proper squat I now do it on an angle. That is stuff that he has built over the years.”

Knowles’ mantra is restoring athletic normal. He aims to get the athlete back to how they moved and functioned prior to that injury. For Lewis, it was finding ways to strengthen his quads without stressing his patella. His knee issues are extensive. He was restricted to just 15 games in 2022 and 2023 due to a range of knee injuries, including a sprained ACL. Knowles thinks outside the box: squats and deadlifts are out, a hula-hoop is in. This simple tool helps focus on core strength and hip stability and is one of many gems Lewis brought back to embed in his program. In fact, the strength program shifted after the trip. Knowles wanted more quad bulk and strength. The Compex machine was back in the program, not just for squat holds but also for 30-minute exercise bike sessions. The gains were enormous.

“My reconditioning program is centred on establishing or re-establishing the fundamental qualities of athletic movement. We address physical literacy and physical competency at a very high level, regardless of the injury and almost regardless of the sport,” Knowles explained via email. “The qualities required to move efficiently must be addressed. All sports are about making shapes and changing shapes, and we need to get athletes comfortable with getting in and out of those shapes effectively.”

After spending all day at Knowles Athletic, Lewis, Blanck and Price went to the Wells Fargo Center on back-to-back nights. The first night, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were in town to play the Philadelphia 76ers; the next night, they watched an NHL game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders.

TWO’S COMPANY

INJURIES happen in pre-season, but seldom like they did at Waverley Park on February 15, 2024. That morning, Dylan Moore was diagnosed with glandular fever, hours before James Blanck ruptured his ACL in the same intraclub match that Changkuoth Jiath strained his hamstring, just weeks after returning from Aspetar. It was a savage blow on the eve of the season.

Blanck had only just established himself as a permanent fixture in defence after being recruited from Box Hill 18 months earlier at the age of 21 via the 2022 Mid-Season Rookie Draft. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the next few months. Knee reconstructions are meant to be one and done. Blanck went under the knife five times, requiring secondary surgery to clean out an infection, then another arthroscope, before more manipulation and finally a lateral procedure when his knee locked up. He is still on antibiotics to this day.

The now 24-year-old didn’t return until April 20, 2025 – 14 months after the injury. By the time Lewis did his own knee, Blanck was almost at the same point due to all the setbacks he endured last winter. With Lewis joining him in rehab, the road back wasn’t as bleak as it first looked. Misery loves company.

“Doing the first three or four months on my own was woeful,” Blanck explained at the club last month. “I had a bit of a shit run as well, so going through that and being alone I had to cop the full brunt of that.

“Obviously, you don’t want to see any of your teammates injured, but doing it with Mitchy changed everything. He brings so much energy, so much vibrancy, despite going through his own turmoil and being away from the team and what he loves. His character gives everyone around him so much energy; it takes a special sort of person to do that. He just has it in him in buckets. He made the experience more fun, more enjoyable.”

James Blanck in action during Hawthorn’s clash with Fremantle in round 24, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos

Blanck battled mentally, as much as physically. It had taken him the long road to get to the AFL. He played the final nine games of 2022 and 15 in 2023 to earn a two-year extension months before the injury. The recruitment of Tom Barrass and Josh Battle have made it much harder to get a game, but the nature of the injury has hardened his resolve.  

“It [the injury] was a big punch in the face,” Blanck said. “It was tough news to digest that it was going to be a 12-month injury. I just kept hanging on that I would be right for pre-season, it will just wipe out this year (2024). But then you have a setback and you’re not going to make the start of pre-season (and) you get in your own head. It was a real tough mental arm wrestle.

“I like to look at things that everything happens for a reason and you try and find the positives in the negatives. For me, it built up resilience. I haven’t had to go through heaps of adversity in my life. it was a big challenge and has hardened my ability to deal with things. Nothing’s perfect. Being able to get on with the job no matter what is important.”

Blanck had already completed a couple of years of an osteopathy course before the Hawks promoted him from the VFL program to the AFL squad. He will continue that study at Victoria University next year and believes life after footy will involve health science. That background gave him greater clinical understanding of what they were doing at Knowles Athletic. For now, he is still fighting for another chance in Sam Mitchell’s best 23.

CLOSER, BUT NOT CLOSE

THE NEW season arrived swiftly after Lewis returned from America, and with it arrived a fresh stream of feelings. Pre-season isn’t the worst time to be in rehab. You aren’t missing out on games. But now footy was here again, Lewis was flat.

Hawthorn sent him up to Sydney to be involved in a promo shoot for Opening Round two days ahead of the season-opener against the Swans, alongside Mason Cox, Will Hayward and Jesse Hogan, with the Harbour Bridge in the background.  

Will Hayward and Mitch Lewis during the media opportunity to launch Opening Round in March 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

Two days later he was back in Melbourne and inside Triple M’s South Melbourne studio for a radio interview. Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall was there, along with Nathan Brown, Damian Barrett and Mark Howard, who just wanted to know how the injured star was tracking.

“The start of the footy season really brought on emotions,” he said. “I was so f***ing flat that day. You are out of sight, out of mind, which is just the reality of it. I went in there and I don’t reckon I played it off that well that I wasn’t in the best mood. They just asked question of how I was going and I was honest. It was a tough time. There was no sugarcoating it.

“My training from now will be more enjoyable, but my mental state will probably get worse before it gets better because I’m going to be training and feeling good but know I’ve still got another 8-10 weeks of this before I can play. Right now, I’m as confident as ever that I’m going to come back a better athlete than I have before. Before I did my ACL I couldn’t see a way out with my kneecap, but now I see light at the end of the tunnel and really trust the process that we are in now. The last two years have played out the way they have but that shouldn’t define me going forward.”

WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

ADRIAN Hickmott set Mitch Lewis a challenge in March. Just over six months post-surgery, he was training well, but soreness was causing him grief. Pain is to be expected but can be problematic. Hickmott isn’t afraid to cut to the chase. The 53-year-old has been involved in the AFL since he made his debut for Geelong in 1992, starting his coaching journey at Essendon and then West Coast before joining Sam Mitchell at Hawthorn at the end of 2021. Some in the industry view him as a future senior coach.

As far as Hickmott was concerned, Lewis was spending too much time on his feet, doing activities that most fit people take for granted, but weren’t aiding his recovery. Golf was the main one. Lewis literally grew up on Hidden Valley Resort Golf Course in Wallan – his family house backed onto it – and is regarded as one of the best footballers with a club in his hands. If time permits, he will play every single day. It’s always been this way. But like a cyclist preparing for the Tour de France or Giro D’Italia, time off legs is virtually as important as time on legs. Energy conservation is vital.

Hickmott looks after the forwards – with the help of pseudo playing assistants Jack Gunston and Luke Breust – and is a practical teacher. He encouraged Lewis to write everything in a journal over a month so he could see just how much time he was spending on his legs. The week they started the exercise, Lewis attended the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake with Jai Newcombe and Conor Nash. It quickly dawned on him the changes he had to make.

Adrian Hickmott at Hawthorn training in September 2024. Picture: AFL Photos

“We had a few testing moments through that time,” Hickmott said. “I’m not a physio or doctor, obviously, but the advice is less time on legs will help your knees. We went through a stage where he did a journal for four weeks on time on legs away from the club. At the club, no worries. But he was getting to a stage where he loves his golf, why can’t I play golf if I want to? He is a beautiful golfer, so no wonder he wants to play, but he went through a stage where the swelling kept coming.

“He was dirty about not being able to play golf, he loves walking the dog, loves doing work around the house. But he was in this stage where he couldn’t get the knee quite right, so I cracked the shits with him. I said, ‘you need to look at yourself and see how many hours you do on your legs away from here’. We did this journal for four weeks and every week he looked at it, it jolted him to realise that he does spend a fair amount of time on his legs without knowing it, even walking the dog for 2km.

“What I reckon he learnt was a bit of discipline in himself away from the club. I love golf, but I don’t need golf. I’m a footballer. I want to come back as a footballer. I can walk the dog, but I can take it to the park and let the dog go. So there were little intricacies around his work off-field that helped when he started training back up.”

PSYCHOLOGICAL AS MUCH PHYSICAL

IF YOU didn’t know it was there, you would walk past it. Hidden down a suburban street in Collingwood, Inner Studio became a place to escape during rehab. Every now and then, Lewis would meet Hawthorn’s sports psychologist Ed Barlow at the breathwork studio for a session.

Owned by former Collingwood midfielder Ben Sinclair and his brother, ex-Cat Will Slade, Inner Studio houses the largest sauna in the southern hemisphere, two curved magnesium plunge pools: a hot pool at 38 degrees and a cold pool at 5 degrees, amid a green oasis in an industrial warehouse.

While Jack Price has been the central figure putting Lewis’s body back together physically, Barlow has been the sounding board to help him swerve around the mental hurdles that inevitably emerge. They met for nearly 40 sessions across the 11 months on the sidelines. At the club, at Barlow’s office or off-site at places like Inner Studio.

Since joining Hawthorn last year, Barlow has become a close confidant to many at Waverley Park, helping players cope with the pressure of performing week in, week out, as well as those living on the fringe of selection or without deals for next year. Sometimes with just a reassuring look, often over a longer conversation.

Barlow lived and breathed what most players deal with. He played 34 games across five seasons at Sydney and the Western Bulldogs. He was picked up in the rookie draft twice and delisted twice. He knows exactly what it’s like to get out of your car on a Thursday morning and not know if you’re in the team for the weekend, let alone if you’ll have a contract for next year.

“He has been so helpful, both individually and collectively. I think he has made a real difference for us. For myself, he has just been there throughout it all,” Lewis said. “If I was having a really down patch, there were times where I had to see him two or three times a week. He has really made a big difference.”

Barlow armed Lewis with the weapons to combat the psychological exhaustion of being unable to perform the job you’re paid to do. He set him a 30-day challenge and every day they would both have to complete a 10-minute mindfulness session on the Smiling Minds app and send a screenshot to each other proving they’d done it. Doing exercises together was a theme during rehab, all the way to the end.

“Two weeks before I made my return, I had a massive session and it was my exit from rehab back to the main group fully. I had my last fartlek and Ed was running with me, and I don’t know what came over me,” he said, “but I started becoming super emotional that that was my last rehab session and it was game time now. It was a pretty cool moment between Ed and I and he just was like: You f***ing did it. It was pretty powerful moment looking back.”

READY TO RETURN

THE MORNING after Hawthorn hosts Adelaide in the first Friday night fixture at University of Tasmania Stadium proves to be a different type of milestone. Mitch Lewis is back at OSVi before 8am on a biting cold Saturday morning in June, 2025.

The Hawks won by under a kick in a low-scoring affair the night before heading off on the bye while the discourse swirls around the value of a roof in that state. Many are staying in Launceston to play golf at Barnbougle. Others are flying down after the VFL game. Instead, Lewis is strapped to a machine, sweating profusely, mentally exhausted.

Before he can be cleared to return in the VFL, Lewis must pass these tests. He and Price were here for the three-month assessment post-surgery to measure his dynamic function and strength. They have been back multiple times to the only place in Australasia that has a biomechanics lab in a clinic. Now they are here to seal the deal.

“We do this when they are ready to return, which Mitch is,” Price said. “We are looking mostly at his dynamic function through some testing on the force plates, some different hop testing, double and single leg to get a gauge on his strength. We compare his injured to his unaffected side, but also compare how much progress he has made from the three-month mark.

“Typically we would test at the six-month mark, but on the back of our trip to the States, we changed our approach through that phase of his rehab and we didn’t have him doing as much jumping and hopping at that stage, we really doubled down on his strength. We’ve been doing some in-house testing at the club, so we have our own data. Today is about getting something more formal. We are looking at his quad and hamstring strength through range, which gives us a really accurate measure.”

With Blanck and Butler both returning in the VFL on Easter Sunday, Price is required for skills and running drills for Lewis’ final block before returning to full training. That’s where a memorable moment of rehab arrives. On Lewis’ final day out of the main group, Price severely tears his hamstring on the lead. Fortunately, every patch of Waverley Park grass is filmed. The incident hasn’t been missed by the analysts, much to the amusement of the entire football department in the next team meeting.  “At least I saw out the rehab process,” Price laughs at his own expense.

MIND GAMES

MOST people venture to this corner of High Street in Kew to buy fruit and vegetables from Toscano’s. But across the road, AFL stars come and go from a street level office, from Nick Larkey to Jack Ginnivan to Tristan Xerri to Jai Newcombe, plus trade and free agency targets Zak Butters and James Worpel. There is always something going on.

Kapital Sports Group is one of the 10 main player agencies based in Melbourne. Founded in 2020 after Lenton Sports and i50 Sports Management joined forces, the boutique agency is led by Peter Lenton, John Meesen and Mark Kleiman. Every agency has its own selling point. Kapital is determined to maximise its clients’ wealth accumulation, not just through their playing contracts, but through investments. This was a key reason for the merger. Lenton also runs an accounting firm, Lenton Partners, and never planned on getting into player management. One thing led to another and 20 years later he is more actively involved than ever before. Meesen wanted to offer more to his budding flock of young guns. The rest is history.

On an overcast Wednesday afternoon in June, Lewis is back in the office for a regular meeting with Meesen, who has managed his affairs since he was the ironic draft pick out of Assumption College in 2016. Months after Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis departed, Hawthorn selected Mitchell Lewis from the Calder Cannons at pick No.76. Meesen has kept in regular contact throughout the rehabilitation process, mainly on the phone, but now the return is imminent. Lewis will return that Saturday in the VFL and the mood is reflective in the office. It has been an arduous journey to this point. Lewis is the one that has done the work, overcome the anguish, but Meesen has been here throughout.

Mitch Lewis during a Hawthorn training session on December 5, 2016. Picture: AFL Photos

“We have a small role to play initially, just to make sure that everyone is on the right page,” Meesen said. “Clubs are really good with putting them in front of the best, so there is no issue with surgeons and rehab, but sometimes the mental side of it can be quite challenging for players. It might be that a player is out of contract and gets a significant injury or might miss out on finals. Mentally it can be quite difficult. A lot of the time it’s just about providing support around the player.”

Meesen rode the rollercoaster of life in the AFL. A top-10 pick drafted by Adelaide, then traded to Melbourne. He lived all the emotions, including being delisted and exploring what’s next. Those experiences have set him up for a successful career in management. He looks after a wide range of players, from recent first-round picks Leo Lombard, Joe Berry and Jed Walter to All-Australians Daniel Rioli and Adam Saad. In the days after Lewis visits Kapital Sports, Meesen travels to Adelaide to finalise the lucrative extension for in-demand Port Adelaide defender-turned-midfielder Miles Bergman.

Lewis’ contract hasn’t hovered over his head during rehab. He signed a four-year extension in 2022 and isn’t out until the end of next year. Discussions on his future had been parked until he is back on the park. But there is external noise. Key forwards are hard to find. Expect clubs to ask the question sooner rather than later if Hawthorn list manager Mark McKenzie doesn’t make a move before Lewis starts 2026 without a contract after the end of that season.

“Mitch knows exactly where he’s at,” Meesen said. “I think at his best, he’d be a really important piece to Hawthorn and potentially any other club would be considering looking at someone like him. He just wants to get back out there and play.

Mitch Lewis greets fans after the R19 match between Hawthorn and Port Adelaide at UTAS Stadium on July 19, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

“Once he gets through these VFL games and finds himself back in the AFL side, I think he plays the year out and then we have a conversation at the end of the year. There is no real rush. With the amount of time that he’s missed in the last couple of years, timing is everything, but once he is back and healthy it will be a slow conversation because the more he plays, the more confidence he gets, and the club gets to know exactly where his price point is.”

As Lewis departs Kapital he knows he has only one thing left to do. He hasn’t cut his hair since that crash landing at Kardinia Park. It is now flowing down his back, reminiscent of Bradley Cooper in The Hangover. The time is now to trim the locks.

BACK IN BUSINESS

WHEN Box Hill coach Zane Littlejohn finishes his three quarter-time address at Arden Street, it is job done for Mitch Lewis. Seventy minutes across three quarters was the plan in his first game in over 10 months. He’s done that, dusting off the rust. The first two kicks came off his shin, but he took a big clunk and snapped an important goal, finishing with a second against North Melbourne’s reserves.

As he walked back to the bench, he is swarmed. Shelbea is there with her dad and his mum. His best mates from school, Tom O’Donnell and Sam Peet are there, plus lots of Hawthorn teammates. There are hugs, grins and even tears. A dozen have come to watch his return and there was a sense of relief that it had gone according to plan.

“I only ever tape my wrists for games, so that’s when I started feeling nervous. I only ever tape my wrists for games. When I was taping them, I was like, here we go,” Lewis said.

“It was nice just to tick off. I had zero expectations going into the game. That way I could go out and just enjoy being out there. Body felt really, really good, compared to how I felt when I returned against Geelong last year, I just felt so much better than that time. I was gassed at different points throughout the game, which was to be expected.”

Calsher Dear picked him up and drove him to the game. They combined well in their first-ever game together, as they did the following Sunday at Box Hill City Oval, where they both kicked three goals each in a sign of things to come. While Jack Gunston and Mabior Chol have formed a formidable partnership this year, Dear and Lewis loom as two important chess pieces. If the synergy in the VFL translates to AFL level, Hawthorn’s push for sustained success over the next five years will revolve around these two in attack.

Dear is picked for the trip west the following week – his second game of 2025 – but there isn’t room for Lewis. Not yet. After gradually building his load across two VFL games, Hawthorn high performance boss Peter Burge lets him off the leash against Essendon’s VFL team in the hours before Fremantle overrun the Hawks at Optus Stadium in round 18. Lewis thrives. He finishes with five goals, all from set shots, to command a return.

FINALLY … 

THE JOURNEY from the Sebel Hotel to University of Tasmania Stadium takes less than 10 minutes and signals Lewis’ final passage back to the AFL. All the coaches walk to the ground with lattes in hand, but GM Rob McCartney sits at the front of the bus, channelling the school principal energy from his past professional life.

The energy on the bus is subdued as it winds through the streets of Launceston, over the North Esk River and to the front gate, where the driver reverses 150m to the backdoor of Hawthorn’s rooms, just under two hours before the first bounce.

After 378 days between AFL games, the footy gods aren’t exactly smiling on this part of the country on a day where Tasmania heads to the polls. Torrential rain starts sweeping across the ground moments before the first siren. Hardly ideal conditions for a marking key forward; not that Lewis cares, given what he’s been through.

Mitch Lewis in the pre-game huddle ahead of Hawthorn’s clash with Port Adelaide in round 19, 2025. Picture: Michael Willson, AFL Photos

His first involvement is a clever tap for a Dylan Moore goal. Everyone gets to him. He misses a snap 10 minutes later and belts the ground in frustration. The rain doesn’t stop, sweeping across the ground for two hours straight. By halfway through the third quarter, Sam Mitchell makes the decision to substitute Lewis out of the game. With a five-day break into Thursday night’s clash against Carlton at the MCG, it makes sense.

Lewis gives a thumbs up on the bench to allay any fears of injury to those watching in the stands and from afar. The long journey back was to be a part of something special this September. This is the next, most significant, step towards that. Mission accomplished.

Mitch Lewis in action during Hawthorn’s clash with Port Adelaide in round 19, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

During the week, Lewis looked back at photos on his phone from post-surgery to remind him how much turmoil he went through to get back. He took a moment to reflect in the rooms before the game when he was handed the No.2 guernsey. He tells the boys never to take a game for granted. 

“I’ve had a lot of injuries, but this has definitely given me a whole different perspective,” he said from a corner of the changerooms at UTAS Stadium. “The last 12-18 months has just taught me to enjoy every moment because it is privilege to play AFL and it is a privilege to play for this club because you don’t know when it can be taken away.”

Life changed course last July. But this July, Lewis is back in business, savouring every game. He knows one fall – and one confirmation call – can change everything.

Mitch Lewis (centre) celebrates with teammates after Hawthorn’s win over Port Adelaide in round 19, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos