Lewis Roberts-Thomson
2003-2014
179 games
54 goals
Premiership Player 2005, 2012
AFL Hall of Fame Legend Leigh Matthews once said that Lewis Roberts-Thomson was one of the most valuable players in the game due to his ability to play so many key-position roles for his team. Versatility had always been a strength.
Every chosen activity comes with its own internal standards of accomplishment. While at the Shore School, in Sydney's lower north shore, Lewis Roberts-Thomson played on the school's First XV Rugby Union and senior basketball teams while finding time to train with the state footy team.
His interest in Australian football stems from his parents, Barry and Victoria. Barry represented Tasmania as a schoolboy and Queensland in later years. One afternoon, when Lewis was in his mid-teens, he inadvertently joined the Willoughby Wildcats.
"I was a reluctant starter. Dad enticed me to go for a kick with him, but coincidentally, the local team was training, and he'd set it up with the coach to come over and invite me across. It was one of those situations you couldn't back out of because I didn't want to be rude," Roberts-Thomson said.
The newest pursuit brought enjoyment, though he found navigating the cultural barrier of playing footy in rugby heartland challenging. But, the more he played the game, the greater the connection, and soon, he was playing in national championships and touring Ireland with an Australian representative team.
In 2001, under a 'developing markets' concessional rule, the Swans lodged a pre-draft selection, taking Roberts-Thomson as a raw talent who'd only played 30-odd games in his life. Buoyed by the news, he completed his HSC exams two days before joining the club.
Though excited to enter the professional sporting realm, he naturally found the prospect daunting. Within months of Roberts-Thomson's arrival, the club replaced senior coach Rodney Eade with Paul Roos, and the new coach had a significant impact on the young player.
"As a young bloke coming in, you did your apprenticeship; you knew your place in the locker room because there was that natural pecking order," Roberts-Thomson said.
"Mentoring programs weren't even necessarily in place, but under Roosy, that all changed. It became more like, okay, you're coming into the footy club, you've got a role to play, and we need to get you from an 18-year-old kid with a bit of potential to a fully functioning senior player, and we need to get you there as quickly as possible."
The club offered specialised support with a structured, tailored training program to fast-track individual recruits, all within a broader sense of team. At a Coffs Harbour training camp at the end of 2002, the 'Bloods Culture' implementation drove the team as they embarked on an incredible journey together.
Within the parameters of expectation and accountability, the Swans developed a roadmap that would guide them to their ultimate destination, and performance improved dramatically in 2003. Roberts-Thomson debuted that year, playing 16 games and two finals matches as a fledgling footballer.
Across his career at the Swans, Roberts-Thomson built a reputation for performing at his best when the stakes were at their highest. When he retired in 2014, John Longmire said, "There is probably no greater compliment a player can be paid than being labelled a 'big game player', but that is exactly what Lewie was."
In 2005, Sydney played in the biggest game of all. Brett Kirk billed the Grand Final against West Coast as 'the Cortinas v the Ferraris', with the Eagles likened to the sleek Italian sports cars, not the Swans. However, being positioned as underdogs is precisely how Roberts-Thomson and his teammates liked it.
The Swans prevailed, crowned premiers for the first time in 72 years, and Roberts-Thomson, one of the team's best on the day, became the first Sydney-raised premiership player in club history. "The way Sydney reacted after that win was pretty phenomenal. People were congratulating us on the street, and it felt like the whole community had embraced us," Roberts-Thomson recalled.
"The Lord Mayor put on the ticker tape parade, and there was a real acknowledgement that a lot of hard work had gone into that win. Breaking that premiership drought meant an incredible amount to everyone involved with the club."
The flag confirmed that their system's foundations were rock-solid, their formula worked, and self-belief surged through the Swans. After six years of consistently contending, the team, now under John Longmire, contained fresh faces but played with the same steely resolve.
Before the 2012 finals series, Longmire called upon the four remaining premiership players from the '05 Swans – Roberts-Thomson, Adam Goodes, Jude Bolton and Ryan O'Keefe – to speak about previous finals encounters. Roberts-Thomson vividly recalls O'Keefe conveying how much the one-point Grand Final loss to West Coast in 2006 still burned.
The entire group was driven and hungry for success, and Sydney played Hawthorn in the 2012 Grand Final. Roberts-Thomson had evolved from a key-position defender to a forward who deployed a dangerous combination of marking power and defensive pressure while kicking a career-high 25 goals.
He'd always played with a quiet ferocity, which was on full display in the decider, physically imposing himself on the contest at every opportunity. When Roberts-Thomson kicked a goal in the third quarter, the Swans had kicked eight in a row. Momentum swung violently all game, though, and the Hawks had hit the lead early in the last. Ultimately, the Bloods spirit, so prevalent all year, saw them through with a thrilling 10-point victory, clinching the club's 10th premiership.
"I've played a lot of sports since I was five years old. Across all levels of the various sports I played, I won three premierships – 2005 and 2012, and one reserves premiership. They are bloody hard to win," Roberts-Thomson said.
"I remember doing the lap of honour after the game in 2012 and watching the young guys grab the cup and carry on; it brought me so much joy. I remember sitting back, watching them celebrate, and looking up to the crowd, just trying to soak it all up, and I was thinking, I hope they realise this doesn't happen all the time. It's just so difficult to win them."
In VFL/AFL history, only five Swans have won more than one premiership. As one of them, Roberts-Thomson's standing within the club is considerable. John Longmire said, "Lewie has been an outstanding competitor for a long period of time. LRT has been a fan favourite – perhaps even a cult figure – and I'm sure our fans are thankful for his wonderful contribution to the club."
A humble, reflective Roberts-Thomson examined his time at the Swans in the following way: "I consider myself incredibly lucky. I fall into the 'right place, right time' category. When I think back to the guys I played with, it would have been great to have had those great players as teammates and not win anything. But, when you throw in a bit of team success, and every year on Grand Final day, I can text someone like Bazza Hall, or Micky O'Loughlin, or Mike Pyke, or Goodesy, and say, 'How good is this?' it's pretty special.”
A warrior on the field, and valued teammate, Roberts-Thomson retains his strong connection with the club. He enjoys his post-retirement role as a supporter and regularly attends SCG matches. When he retired, Martin Flanagan published a letter in The Age, titled A salute to Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
In it, Flanagan wrote, “You grew up barracking for the Swans. Your whole family did. In time, you became part of the Bloods brotherhood that transformed the club. Your belief in the Swans' creed was as clear and direct as your attack on the ball in a Grand Final.”
