The SUNS will pull the #45 jumper out of mothballs for Sunday’s People First Stadium clash with the Western Bulldogs to debut a player who two years ago was desperate to play for the Bulldogs.

Caleb Lewis, who will be player #172 on the SUNS' all-time list, played four VFL games in 2023-24 with Footscray, the Bulldogs’ affiliate in the second-tier competition. He wore jumper #70.

It was part of the early football journey of the now 22-year-old, a product of Brighton Grammar and the Sandringham Dragons in the AFL Talent League, who joined the SUNS via the 2025 Mid-Season Rookie Draft.

Overlooked in his original draft year of 2021, he’s played with Footscray and Melbourne affiliate Casey in the VFL, St Bede's Mentone in the Victorian Amateurs, and Dingley in the Southern Football League.

A powerful 198cm player capable of playing at either end of the ground, Lewis has been rewarded for back-to-back four-goal games in the VFL.

He’ll be just the second SUNS player to wear jumper #45 at AFL level and will be hoping for a change of fortunes after local boy Jacob Dawson played nine games in #45 in 2018-19 without a win before forging a fine career with Southport.

Confirmation of Lewis’ AFL debut comes on the same day as the SUNS announced a two-year contract extension for tall defender Oscar Adams, who also joined the club via the 2025 Mid-Season Rookie Draft.

It’s a double confirmation that persistence and sheer hard work can be just as rewarding as outright junior talent.

Adams, also 22 and originally from SANFL club Glenelg, was drafted by St Kilda at pick #51 in the same 2021 National Draft in which Lewis was overlooked completely.

But two years on Adams was delisted without playing a game and, like Lewis, found himself having to wear the ‘mature-age’ tag as he chased an alternative path to the elite level.

Lewis was a 2021 Sandringham Dragons teammate of eight players who have combined for 428 AFL games: St Kilda’s Marcus Windhager (92) and Mitch Owens (45), GWS’ Finn Callaghan (88), Melbourne’s Blake Howes (45), Port Adelaide’s Dante Visentini (23) and Josh Sinn (30), Carlton’s Campbell Chesser (39), who was originally drafted by West Coast, and the Bulldogs’ Luke Cleary (25), who has been omitted for Sunday’s game.

Lewis’ link to the SUNS began with a phone call prior to the mid-season draft last year when he was playing with Dingley.

“They touched base around Round 1, just a brief phone call with a bit of a chat and it just went from there,” Lewis recalls.

“I thought it was a prank to be honest, that someone was taking the mickey out of me and pretending to be someone else,” he said after arriving on the Coast.

“Then it got real and I guess I put my best foot forward every step of the way and here we are.”

Lewis kicked 66 goals in 19 games with Dingley as he evolved from a promising but raw kid into an AFL target known for his ability to take a strong pack mark.

“I think Dingley facilitated that massively for me … the culture there is insane, it’s unreal,” he said after being drafted by the SUNS.

“I love to be a part of it and everyone really brings me up and allows me to be myself. Everyone just backs me in, no matter what.

“Dingley has really helped me to back myself in, fly for everything and play to my strengths.

“It’s pretty crazy obviously not playing too much VFL, playing four games over two years at Casey and then the four games at the Dogs as 23rd man.

“You can kind of catch yourself in the mindset of ‘why aren’t I playing?’ and get a bit down on yourself, but I think that’s where Dingley and the boys, the coaches … just the support from them to continue to play my game.

“Continue to fly, continue to do everything that makes me a footballer led me to this. Since then it’s been pretty overwhelming, but it’s been unreal.”

But Lewis’ draft selection by the SUNS wasn’t exactly out of the blue. Recruiting boss Kall Burns had tracked him from his Under 16 days and took a punt on him after his strong finals campaign last year and a good pre-season.

“There was obviously a lot of fanfare about his finals series for Dingley, in particular his grand final against Cheltenham was really strong,” Burns said after the mid-season draft last year.

“He just hit pre-season running. We thought his pre-season form at Casey was really strong and then we started to really hone in on him again.

“We were there in Round 1, absolutely, and what we like about Caleb is his attributes. He’s got massive hands, so he’s a great overhead mark.

“He’s really clean at ground level for someone of his size. He’s 198cm, so for a player like him to be good at ground level is quite appealing.

“He’s got excellent movement, covers the ground really nicely, really good footy IQ. There’s a lot of attributes about Caleb we like.

“He’s still quite raw in terms of his AFL development, but we see a lot of potential there.

“He’s quite a competitive kid and we particularly saw that through his finals series with Dingley.

“He was thrown into the ruck at times, he was able to crash packs forward too, but we go right back to his 18th year where he showed his traits as a key back too.

“We feel like he can play at both ends of the ground, back and forward. And as a forward he can pinch-hit in the ruck as well. He ticks a lot of boxes.”