How a suburban high-flyer soared onto the Suns' radar
Caleb Lewis thought he was the victim of a classic prank.
When Gold Coast rang the key forward from Melbourne suburban club Dingley and expressed its interest ahead of the mid-season draft, he was initially wary, thinking it was a mate on the line.
But he soon realised there was no punchline coming and an AFL career suddenly 'got real'.
'They touched base around Round 1, just a brief phone call with a bit of a chat and it just went from there,' Lewis said.
'I thought someone was having me on, to be honest, I thought someone was taking the mickey out of me a bit and pretending to be someone else.
'Then it just got real after that, I knew it was real and I guess I put my best foot forward every step of the way and, yeah, here we are.' Caleb Lewis during this year's Young Guns match. (Photo by Rob Lawson/AFL Photos) Credit: AFL Photos
The 'here we are' for Lewis is sitting at a Gold Coast cafe after completing his first captain's run as a Sun.
Plucked by the Suns in Wednesday night's mid-season draft, he will play VFL on Saturday morning.
Lewis was on Casey Demons' books last year and Footscray's the year before – but he leapt onto an AFL list after a 66-goal campaign for Dingley in local football.
In the space of 19 games, Lewis evolved from a raw kid with potential to a turnstile-ticking forward capable of taking a spectacular mark.
Lewis credits to Dingley for allowing him to showcase his strengths.
'I think Dingley facilitated that massively for me, especially, the culture there is insane, it's unreal,' he said.
'I love to be a part of it, everyone really brings me up and allows me to be myself and everyone just backs me in, no matter what.
'Dingley has really facilitated me to back myself in, fly for everything and play to my strengths.
'It's pretty crazy obviously not playing too much VFL, playing four games over two years at Casey and then the four games at the Dogs as 23rd man.
'You can kind of catch yourself in the mindset of 'why aren't I playing?' and getting a bit down on yourself but I think that's where Dingley and the boys, the coaches, just the support from them to continue to play my game.
'Continue to fly, continue to do everything that makes me a footballer led me to this, since then it's been pretty overwhelming but it's been unreal.' Caleb Lewis soars for a mark earlier this year. Andrew Keech Credit: Supplied Lewis soared over, on and through packs in last year's Southern league finals. Andrew Batsch Credit: News Corp Australia
While his ascension appears out of the blue, the Suns have tracked Lewis for some time.
Gold Coast recruiter Kall Burns first saw Lewis in under-16s but said his strong finals and pre-season prompted the Suns to take the punt on the high-flyer from the 'burbs.
'There was obviously a lot of fanfare about his finals series for Dingley, in particular his grand final against Cheltenham was really strong,' Burns said.
'He just hit pre-season running, we thought his pre-season form at Casey was really strong and then when we started to really hone in on him again.
'We were there (Round 1) absolutely, what we like about Caleb is his attributes, he's got massive hands so he's a great overhead mark.
'He's really clean at ground level for someone of his size, he's 198cm so for a player like him to be good at ground level is quite appealing.
'He's got excellent movement, covers the ground really nicely, really good footy IQ – there's a lot of attributes about Caleb we like.
'He's still quite raw in terms of his AFL development but we see a lot of potential there.' Lewis played four games for Footscray and four games for Casey in the VFL. (Photo by Jonathan DiMaggio/AFL Photos) Credit: Supplied
Lewis has won his spot on the Suns' list as a key forward.
But Burns said Lewis had the potential to play a variety of roles under three-time premiership mentor Damien Hardwick.
'He's quite a competitive kid and we particularly saw that through his finals series with Dingley,' he said.
'He was thrown into the ruck at times, he was able to crash packs forward too – but we go right back to his 18th year where he showed his traits as a key back too.
'We're really open-minded with Caleb, we feel like he can play bookends of the ground, back and forward.
'And as a forward he can pinch hit in the ruck as well if that's what Damien needs in the system – he ticks a lot of boxes.'
The Suns VFL side plays Coburg at People First Stadium on Saturday morning.
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