LEWIS Taylor can do almost anything on a football field.

He wins the ball in close, dazzles with his quick footwork, pinpoints teammates with sharp passes and can kick miraculous goals.

But at only 174 centimetres tall, there is one thing missing on his highlights reel.

“I don’t take big pack marks or anything,” he said.

Taylor has created hype in AFL draft circles this year despite his height — only 25 of the 816 AFL-listed players in 2013 were under 175cm.

Such is his immense talent, Taylor is tipped to be a first round selection, possibly in the top 20, at next week’s national draft.

Taylor has never worried about being one of the shortest on the field.

It didn’t bother him when he made his senior debut for Hampden league club Terang Mortlake at 16, nor did it hinder him when he joined TAC Cup side Geelong Falcons or played against the best teenagers in the nation when he represented Vic Country at the AFL under 18 national championships. 

“It hasn’t affected my game at all,” Taylor said.

“I am not the first one trying to play AFL at my height.”

Taylor has been compared to North Melbourne 300-gamer Brent Harvey.

Harvey, at 172cm, was the fourth shortest player on an AFL list last season behind Hawthorn rookie Amos Frank (169cm), Port Adelaide jet Jake Neade (170cm) and Adelaide forward Ian Callinan (171cm).

“I used to watch a lot of Ben Cousins and his onfield stuff,” Taylor said.

“He was a good player. But watching ‘Boomer’ Harvey, I just love the way he plays the game — he takes it on and is a good ball user and can snag a few goals here and there.

“He’s obviously played a few games and been around a long time, so he’s a good one to look at, I think.”

Taylor has built his reputation as a midfielder, just as comfortable under the packs as he is out wide.

He knows slotting into an AFL onball brigade will take time and patience.

“If I was lucky enough (to be drafted), maybe I’d play on a half-forward flank or a forward pocket to start out with and after a while, after bulking up, maybe move into the midfield,” he said.

Terang Mortlake coach Matthew Irving worked with Geelong Falcons’ under 16s when Taylor came through the development program.

Irving said Taylor was a well-rounded player whose height wouldn’t be a factor.

“Lewy is the sort of player with really good lateral movement left to right and is super quick and on both sides of his body uses the footy well,” he said. 

“He is hard in and under but on the outside he’s good as well.”

Taylor’s introduction to football was that of a typical country kid. His father Simon signed him up to Auskick and he progressed through the ranks.

Hampden schoolboys was the former Mercy Regional College student’s first representative gig.

The honours kept coming — Falcons, Vic Country, AFL-AIS — and so did the draft excitement.

“It doesn’t worry me too much. I know what I have to do and you get told to control what you can control, so you just have to keep improving in the areas you need to and things like that,” Taylor said.

“You don’t really take too much notice about all that. If you get caught up in all that it’s not good for you.”

However, Taylor allows himself a sneak peek into the future.

“It is my dream. I have played it since I was a kid, love the sport and have always loved going to watch footy,” he said.

“It’s great and you meet a lot of mates along the way and you want to play at the highest level where you can and test yourself against the best of the best, so I think it’s the perfect way to go if you can get there.”

Taylor’s 2013 season was a mixed bag. He justified his draft standing with sublime performances at the under 18 championships, with a 32-possession game at Docklands the standout.

He also finished third in Geelong Falcons’ best and fairest, despite being limited to 10 games.

But Taylor’s season ended prematurely.

A foot injury required surgery and ruled him out of the Falcons’ finals campaign.

He has discarded his moon boot and expects to be back in full pre-season training, wherever that is, before Christmas.

Light running was the first step on his road back. 

Taylor’s stress fracture, the biggest injury of his career, kept him out of the Falcons’ qualifying final win over Calder Cannons and preliminary final loss to eventual premier Eastern Ranges.

“I missed the first final because I was getting surgery that day but it sort of kicked in the second final when we were playing Eastern,” he said.

“Watching the boys go down was pretty hard, harder than being out there I think. 

“But we had a good season. We gave it our best.”

Taylor said he soaked up information from all three football programs he was part of in 2013.

He learnt from former Western Bulldog forward Brad Johnson, who was his AIS-AFL mentor, ex-Sydney Swans premiership pair Michael O’Loughlin and Tadhg Kennelly and Geelong Falcons region manager Michael Turner and coach Andy Allthorpe.

“They do a lot of work that people don’t know about too, which is to their credit, and they looked after a lot of us which we are grateful for,” Taylor said of the Falcons’ program.

“The old man got me into the game pretty young and always got me to where I needed to be and doesn’t miss many games or things like that too.”

Taylor is ready to test himself at AFL level.

Maybe he’ll even attempt a speccy if he gets there.