There was an intra-club practice match at Subiaco Oval in 2009.
Club luminaries like Dean Cox, Matt Priddis, Daniel Kerr, Andrew Embley and Darren Glass were running round, getting themselves ready for the rigours of another season.
The West Coast Eagles did not have enough players to fill two teams, so leaned on Swan Districts to send down a number of players, who were advanced enough in their preparation to play.
By the end of the game no one was talking about Cox, Priddis, Glass, Kerr, Embley et al. All attention was on an Indigenous kid who had caught the eye with his lightning speed, piercing kick and poise.
His name was Lewis Jetta. The club was keen to keep him under wraps, but it was too late. The genie was out of the bottle.
Jetta had played at Swan Districts in 2007, but after being over-looked in the 2007 draft returned to his home town, Bunbury. He played in 2008 with Bridgetown, but decided to have another crack at the big time and went back to Swans.
That practice match hit-out would have been enough to get his name crackling on the football grapevine, but a solid season with Swan Districts ensured he would get his AFL opportunity.
The Eagles took Brad Sheppard with their first selection at No.7 and the Sydney Swans swooped at pick No.14.
Jetta settled into the harbour city, but it took some time for him to demonstrate to the football world, the vast armoury of weapons he carries within.
He made his debut in round one, 2010 but kicked 19 consecutive behinds in his first season at Sydney before finally converting in round 19 against Hawthorn.
His signature moment with the Swans came in the 2012, a year in which, ironically, he was his club’s leading goal-kicker.
It was the 2012 grand final, against Hawthorn, on football’s biggest stage. The MCG.
He took possession at half-back, looked over his shoulder and saw Cyril Rioli bearing down. With his eyes he challenged the sublimely gifted Rioli, took a run along the outer wing, audaciously taking a couple of bounces before kicking it deep into attack.
Few players would dare to taunt Rioli in that manner.
A couple of hours later, Jetta was an AFL premiership player.
He remained in Sydney until the end of the 2015 season when the pull of returning home became too much to resist. He was traded to West Coast. The Eagles finally had their man.
And so began the second stanza of a wonderful football story. One that tomorrow will see him reach the 200-game milestone.
He is a transformed player, a different man from the one we first saw unveiled in the practice game more than a decade ago.
No longer the free-wheeling wingman or forward, Jetta’s elite skills are now deployed in defence.
Regarded by his peers as the best kick in the competition he backs himself, pulls the trigger on kicks that few others would dare.
He thrives in the big moments.
His signature highlight at Sydney was the grand final match race with Cyril. The equivalent for West Coast was a spectacular goal against Collingwood in the 2018 qualifying final at Optus Stadium. The first AFL final at WA’s shiny new stadium.
The game was on the line, Jetta gathered an errant defensive clearance at the top of the 50 metre arc, dodged and weaved and kicked a spectacular goal.
It prompted an appropriate ‘Ronaldo-esque’ celebration.
The other big moment in a West Coast sense came in the 2018 grand final against the Pies.
This time it had nothing to do with his electrifying speed, his dare or his skill. This was about his wisdom, his counsel and his care.
Shortly before three-quarter time Liam Ryan, another prodigious Indigenous talent, missed an important opportunity to mark when his glance was taken momentarily from the ball. As players made their way to the huddle, Jetta put a consoling arm around his “brother”, suggested he put that behind him and focus on the next chance to impact.
Ryan, in his first game at the MCG, would be an important link in the match-winning chain in the dying minutes. He took a spectacular contested mark that finished with Dom Sheed kicking the match-winner.
And Jetta became a two-time premiership star.
Jetta played 127 games with Sydney and his 73rd as an Eagle will make him the 27th Indigenous player to reach the 200 game milestone at the elite level.
He has been wonderfully entertaining, charismatic and a great club man, emphasised when he won the Chris Mainwaring Medal in 2018.
