FACT FILE

Nick Larkey

Born: June 6, 1998 list and there wasn’t another key forward around,” Larkey said.

“I was a bit daunted, but I was looking forward to the opportunity.

“Players were going to look for me inside 50 and I had this opportunity to be the No. 1 target.”

A similar story had unfolded at Hawthorn for Lewis.

Two AFL games in 2018 and then 12 in 2019 when on occasion he was selected ahead of his mentor Roughead.

In 2020 he was in and out of the team during Hawthorn’s horrible hub season, which he thought he would start as the team’s clear No. 1 forward only to be disappointed when Jonathon Patton was brought to the club from the GWS Giants in what would become a short-lived experiment.

He missed a chunk of 2021 after being concussed during a midweek boxing session, which meant that entering last year there were divided opinions as to whether Jacob Koschitzke had supplanted him.

Recruited from: Hawthorn Citizens (Vic)/Oakleigh U18

Debut: Round 18, 2017, v Essendon

Height: 198cm

Weight: 95kg

Games: 87

Goals: 161

Honours: leading goalkicker 2021, 2022. Brownlow Medal: career votes 8.

However, Lewis put that discussion to bed with 37 goals through 15 impressive games before a series of soft tissue injuries ended his season prematurely.

His goals-per-game average was up there with the best in the competition for much of last season, which explains why heading into this year, many had him pegged as Hawthorn’s most important player.

“How about we just keep it to contested marks and goalkicking?” Lewis joked when asked for some self-scouting.

“I don’t think I’m a Tom Hawkins type that can lock into a one-on-one and just absolutely out-strength and outbody their opponent.

“So, I feel like working my way up the ground and ripping hard back to goal is one of my strengths, as well the agility for my size to be able to lose my opponent.”

Larkey is driven by the close-run thing that is his AFL career.

He knew he was skirting with getting drafted in the first place and that feeling of uncertainty has never left him.

“I feel like my whole career’s been just not proving myself wrong, but surprising myself that I can play here,” he said.

“And then I think within the last year, maybe last year I was finally like, ‘alright, I am the person for this team’.

“They showed the faith in me and I felt, that probably last year. I felt comfortable in the position.”

But having finally carved his niche in AFL footy and at North, he did think hard before signing that longterm deal ... it has been a heavy slog at Arden St from the time he arrived.

“I just needed to see a light at the end of the tunnel, really, and that we have a plan for the future and that our list isn’t that far away from turning things around,” Larkey said.

“And, yeah, I signed because I did believe in the plan, the stability we’ve got with the people around us and where the list’s at and some of the young boys breaking out and showing what they can do.”

Lewis, who is signed at the Hawks until the end of 2026, and Larkey both keep close tabs on each other.

They played schoolboy football against each other and Lewis jokes that it was Larkey who took his spot back in the Vic Metro days. They also share the same management group.

“I always check on how he’s going, as I do with a lot of other key forwards, especially the guys around my age who are always trying to one up each other – so yeah, I chat to him after games against each and yeah, he’s a really good guy,” he said. “He’s going along nicely.”

Larkey has been a Lewis watcher ever since their school days when Assumption played Trinity.

“I love watching him play,” he said.

“I didn’t realise how good he was.

“I remember playing him playing for Assumption and thinking he was a jet, but he had a big breakout year last year and now he’s unreal. He just dominates and kicks goals.”

Larkey has now played 87 games for North Melbourne, with only five players taken at pick No. 73 having played more since the introduction of the draft in 1986, while eight players who started their careers as the 76th selection have played more than Lewis, now on 61.

But they are tracking towards becoming among the best players taken with those picks.

And they are testament to the theory that once you walk into an AFL club, your draft number is irrelevant.

“It’s the work ethic and the respect you gain from teammates and coaches that makes a difference,” Lewis said.

“The door’s always open.”

Larkey offers some counsel to those players, who like him, will enter the draft period uncertain about what might unfold.

“If you play good footy, you’re going to get drafted,” he said.

“And if you don’t, you won’t. So, play footy for the enjoyment and if you play well within that and you’re enjoying your footy, then the rest will take care of itself. Don’t get hung up on it.”

He didn’t and yet he’s tracking towards becoming a star.

And like Lewis, one that the so-called draft experts never saw coming.