The creative small forward, who plays his 150^th Hampden league senior match on Saturday, got a sense when he arrived at Bushfield Recreation Reserve nine years ago he'd be there for the long haul.

He was raised in Coleraine, lives in Warrnambool and teaches at Cobden Primary School.

All roads always lead back to Bushfield.

"It means everything to me. When I originally started at North Warrnambool I wasn't actually living in Warrnambool," Lewis said.

"I was living in Coleraine still and travelling up and that was a huge part of me moving to Warrnambool, the footy club.

"I have made friends and now they're lifelong friends. I think I will be involved with the club in some capacity long after I have finished playing. The people around the club are amazing."

The club also helped spark Lewis' passion for teaching.

Lewis, now 29, studied a Bachelor of Health Science at Deakin University before adding a two-year teaching diploma to his resume.

He's now in his fifth year at Cobden Primary School and makes the 40-minute journey each morning, often with other staff members, to teach a grade two class.

"Teaching wasn't always the grand plan but that's the way it turned out and I love it," Lewis said.

"I think footy played a part in that, a bit of coaching got me interested in it.

"Originally I was looking at nutrition and being a dietician and as I matured a bit my ideas changed and I thought there would be more opportunities in teaching.

"I think it happens quite often with people, whatever they choose to do first out of university or end of high school is not what they end up doing. It took me a bit of time to work out what I wanted to do."

He's found his niche teaching young students.

"It is a very good age, they are still eager to please and you don't cop too much cheek off them," he said.

Lewis, who married wife Emily, a nurse at Warrnambool Base Hospital, in March, is settling back into football's routine after COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 competition. He spent the summer playing for Warrnambool and District Cricket Association powerhouse Woodford, winning twenty20 and one-day finals.

He also featured in the Eels' two-day grand final side which finished runner-up to Russells Creek.

"It's been a bit of a slow start," Lewis said of his football season.

"I played cricket this year. I have been on and off with cricket the last few years.

"I tend to play a year and have a couple of years off but with last year not playing footy I decided to have a crack at cricket and that took up most of the pre-season really. I only got to play one practice game. I am starting to find a little bit of the footy now."

Premiership success has eluded Lewis, known affectionately as 'Chopper', at the Eagles. He was part of their 2016 and '19 grand final teams.

Alterations to their 2021 list had outsiders questioning the club's premiership credentials pre-season.

They've since won five of their first six games, including an upset win against Koroit.

"From the outer it would've been easy to look at our side and think we'd drop off a bit with the quality of players we had leave," Lewis said.

"I think the beauty of what (coach) Adam Dowie does is he puts a lot of time into the young players and developing what we have. It can't be underestimated.

"They were talking about it at training the other night, it's like 12 debutants we've had already this year."

Lewis, who rates former Koroit defender Tim Carter and current Warrnambool 200-gamer Brad Bull as his toughest opponents, hopes the next batch of North Warrnambool stars came out of that lot. In his time he's played with top-line players.

"When I first started David Haynes, the coach, was an unbelievable forward and even for consistency someone like Matthew Wines as a midfielder," he said.

"Since I walked in until now not much has changed, he's still an unbelievable player."

Lewis also rates Sam McLachlan, Jake Myles and Liam Ryan, who he played with "at the tail end of his career", as influential players he's run out with.

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