HFNL football grand final: Jarryd Lewis, North Warrnambool Eagles

North Warrnambool Eagles footballer Jarryd Lewis speaks after his side won the 2025 Hampden league grand final.

Transcript

00:00Jarrod, mate, you've finally done it. How good's that feel?

00:03Yeah, it's a bit surreal, to be honest.

00:07Yeah, like, a lot of blood, sweat, tears has gone into this.

00:12Like, you know what it's like to be on the other side of it.

00:15And to be able to soak it up the last five to ten minutes, yeah, it was unreal.

00:21You can't beat that feeling. It's when you're playing for it.

00:23So, very happy.

00:25What is it about this club that, you know, makes you...

00:27You can come back after four straight losses. Like, it takes a lot of resilience.

00:31It is. It's an outstanding effort.

00:33And it's just such a community.

00:36I know that's what footy clubs are, but this one, it's very special.

00:40And I think it's a huge feat to be able to bounce back from so many losses.

00:47I think it's an even better accomplishment than probably just rocking up and winning it.

00:52So, yeah. But, like, this is for the whole community.

00:55There's a lot of supporters that deserve this, and that's what it's for.

01:01So, it's so happy to deliver it for them.

01:04Did you ever lose faith, or did you have confidence that you'd eventually get there?

01:07No, I think that we did, and I think that that's why we got here in the end.

01:11It would have been very easy to sort of pack it up and say that we had our chance.

01:17But we've just kept bouncing back. We've kept putting the work in.

01:20Nathan has just kept instilling a huge amount of confidence in us.

01:24The supporter base is always behind us, and it's just given us the confidence to succeed.

01:29So, yeah. It's just... It makes it all worse.

01:32Are you glad you came here when you were younger?

01:34Absolutely. Like, I wouldn't change anything for the world.

01:38I came down here to test myself, and here I am about 13, 14 years later.

01:43It's my second home now, second family, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

01:47And, mate, you're still killing it? Still got a few years left?

01:50Oh, look, I'll weigh this up.

01:52I sort of said to my wife that if we won it, it would be an interesting call.

01:57But, yeah, look, I hope to. I hope to.

02:00Maybe we'll see what happens next year.

02:02But I think I'll miss footy, so I'll be involved somewhere.

02:05Sounds good. Well, go enjoy it.

02:07Thanks, mate.