He may only be 21 games into his NRL career but Chris Lewis has already established himself as Melbourne Storm's 'Mr Fix-It'.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
During the 2021 campaign, the former Shellharbour Shark has spent time in his favoured back-row as well as a middle forward and at five-eighth.
He believes it's this versatilely that has cemented in Craig Bellamy's 17 this season.
"I've always said, if you can't be good at one job, try and be alright at a lot of them," Lewis said.
"This year I've done a little bit of everything and I've really embraced that.
"My favourite position is obviously back-row but I've got two representative players in front of me there, which is also the case in the middle of the park, which I'm more than capable of playing too.
"It can be tough to get a start sometimes but as I've played a number of positions throughout my career, including the halves, Bellsa [Craig Bellamy] told me to train myself up for all those roles, as there's always a position for a utility - especially with the way the game is going today.
"The game is faster than ever before and with all the HIAs and injuries, teams and players need to be able to adapt on the fly - a luxury not all teams have.
"I'm really enjoying that versatility I bring to the side, which is not too dissimilar to Tom Eisenhuth when he eventually returns."
This flexibility has seen the 29-year-old play in 16 out of the club's 18 fixtures - including each of the past 12.
"Solidifying my spot has been a matter of focusing on my football and working on those errors I made last year - thankfully, I've been able to improve on those aspects at training," he said.
"Being a year older too, I'd like to think I'm a little wiser and know the Storm system and players here better."
That Storm system he speaks of has won 16 straight, including last round's top of the table win against Penrith - who coincidentally was the last side to defeat Melbourne in round three.
"Anytime you beat a team like Penrith is always positive and even though they had a few players out, we came away pretty happy with how we played," the Ashford Roosters junior said.
"The 16 straight wins is very impressive, as we usually struggle a little through that State of Origin period with so many players unavailable.
"That probably shows the quality we have in this group and that there's always someone ready to step up if need be.
"Now we're starting to get our players back, which is a really encouraging sign as we head towards finals."
Before then though, Lewis and his Storm, whose squad also features Bega's Dale Finucane and Gerringong's Tyran Wishart, have five more regular-season matches - starting with the Sea Eagles on Saturday.
"Manly are obviously going extremely well at the moment, on the back of the strong play of Tom Trbojevic - who is someone we're going to have to try and shut down," he said.
"It's not just him we need to worry about though, with the Sea Eagles having numerous very good footballers running across the park each week.
"We know we're in for a really tough clash.
"Over the next few weeks, we'll start to tighten up a few things and focus on everyone's specific roles, so come finals time, we're clicking on all cylinders."
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.