Australian Football

After just three senior games for Claremont in 1986 17-and-a-half year old Chris Lewis was included in West Coast's inaugural VFL squad. He made his Eagles debut in 1987 en route to a total of 215 appearances over the next 14 seasons. He also booted 259 goals. A supremely gifted footballer, his achilles heel, especially early on, was a suspect temperament. On one notorious occasion in 1991 he was suspended after being found guilty of biting an opponent. It was also possible for opposition teams to impair his concentration, and hence his effectiveness, by baiting him.

Later in his career, however, Lewis overcame these problems to some extent. Voted the Eagles' best and fairest player in 1990, he was still producing excellent football in his final few seasons. He was a member of premiership teams in 1992 and 1994, and played five state of origin matches for Western Australia. In 2001 he returned to Claremont taking his final tally of games with that club to 53. One of the matches was the 1996 WAFL grand final in which the Tigers accounted for East Perth by a couple of points.

Author - John Devaney