In a Club with a “15 minutes early is on time” culture, the 18-year-old Newell found himself in a predicament last week when a lone protestor on Brisbane’s Storey Bridge left the morning traffic in chaos.
Newell, who was due at the team’s main training session by 7.30am, knew that he wouldn’t make it to training by car - so promptly parked his car in a side street, and ran almost four kilometres to Coorparoo’s Giffin Park to arrive on time.
“I was on the wrong side of the tracks and had to trot in with my car parked on one of the side streets,” Newell said.
“I was lucky to find it actually when I went back after training.”
“It’s definitely not a good thing to be late at the Lions - you will do anything to get there on time.”
This display of dedication shows why the Lions snapped up this youngster last year.
Newell was on the Lions’ list in 2011 as a NSW Scholarship holder, under a program which dictates that Clubs can contract a player from the age of 15 to train and play under scholarship.
At just 17 years of age, Newell moved to Queensland for his first year out of school.
He spent the 2011 season playing in the midfield for the Lions Reserves and the Queensland U18 state side, and was rewarded for his efforts with a rookie listing at the end of 2011, where he will continue to develop under Senior Coach Michael Voss in 2012.
Newell’s strength is undoubtedly his athleticism - he blitzed the rest of the team on the first day of pre-season this year, clocking the fastest time in the 3km time trial and falling short of Shaun Hart’s Club record by only one second.
“Most boys do cricket in the summer, but since I was really young I’ve been doing athletics so that’s always been one of my strengths,” Newell said.
Newell says that his experience so far at the Lions has been fantastic.
“I get to combine full-on training with some study, which is good for me,” he said.
“And to be able to be a part of an AFL Club at such a young age - I’m loving it and feel really lucky.”
