AFLW: Co-captains Charlie Thomas and Bella Lewis look to achieved shared dream of West Coast Eagles flag

As teenagers, Bella Lewis and Charlie Thomas joked to each other they will one day lift an AFLW premiership trophy together. That dream has taken a giant step towards becoming a reality. Lewis and Thomas are the new co-captains of the West Coast Eagles. While the final day of the season might seem a way off for a team that won four games in a season for the first time in their history last year, it is remarkable to think the West Australian pair — who played pathways football together as young as 14 — are now the two women entrusted with leading them there. Only John Worsfold, Chris Judd and Shannon Hurn have lifted a premiership cup in an Eagles jumper. The in-joke between teenage friends will make national headlines if they one day do it. “I’m just so excited to be doing it with Bella,” Thomas told The West Australian in a sit-down interview with both captains. “It’s something that we have joked about for a few years, always saying it would be sick to do it together. “It started out as a joke, but as the years have gone on it got more serious and it is something we are really, really looking forward to doing and hopefully we are lucky enough to experience that together.” Lewis said they had “spoken about it lots and lots of times” and revealed the pair had been close for a long time. “We have spoken about it lots and lots of times. We joked about it a couple of years ago, saying we wanted to hold the cup up together,” she said. “It’s a full-circle moment to now be doing it together.” In the Eagles’ first and only skipper Emma Swanson — who handed over the reigns before the start of pre-season — and Melbourne premiership captain Daisy Pearce, ahead of her second season as the club’s coach, Thomas and Lewis have two of the women’s game’s greatest leaders to follow. Lewis is 22. She has rapidly emerged as a hard-nosed ball-hunter who feasts on hard balls. Thomas is 21. She has already been the commander-in-chief of the Eagles’ backline for two seasons. Worsfold — who is back at the club in an overarching head of football role that also oversees the AFLW program — was 22 when he took on the job. Both are considered beyond their years, which is handy, because they both concede they are still developing their own games as they take on leadership positions. The players they will lead are largely older than this pair, but few are more experienced. Lewis is just five games behind Belinda Smith and two behind Swanson on the Eagles’ all-time games record list, while Thomas is fifth. “A lot of the time, your captains can be a bit older, but we are at a point where we are the same age as the girl’s we’re leading,” Lewis said. “With that comes developing our own game and being really good at that. “We know that that’s a really important part of us and we still have the hunger to become the best players we can be, given our age and where we are in the system and our group.” Swanson handed over the title after the birth of her child, but has pledged to help the two new young leaders steer the group. “I think the timing is right. Swanny has been carrying a lot of the load for the past five years and she’s in a new chapter of her life and her career. I think the timing is perfect,” Thomas said. “I think her on-field spoke for itself and she would just put the team first no matter if we were losing, winning and just being able to rock up and give her very, very best every single week was incredible. “Not only games, but on track as well, I think the first time I stepped into the footy club it was like ‘Swanny’s the benchmark’.” Lewis said Swanson is “still my captain” and warned she could take her game to another level this season. The Eagles had their best-ever season in the women’s competition. They won four games and the young group took its biggest strides yet in its first season under Pearce. And their two new co-captains are adamant they’re not far away from living out their teenage dream.