Overlooked in two drafts then eventually chosen by Geelong as the second last pick in 2023, Lawson Humphries’ rise to the top of the AFL world since then has been swift. As a mainstay in his second season for one of the premiership favourites, with an ability to kick on both sides, and a mature, calm manner that has quickly won over coaches and teammates, the smooth moving 22-year-old represents one of the best pure footy stories in recent years.
But when he booted his second career goal in May, wearing the Indigenous guernsey he and his sister Meeza designed – pulling the fabric tight in celebration to reveal the Wandjina creator spirit – Humphries highlighted there is more to him than his comfort with the Sherrin.
The 22-year-old with connections to the Nyul Nyul, Oomiday, Worrora, Jaru and Nimanburu peoples in the Kimberley region in Western Australia, studies anthropology at university, and is currently completing a social research unit into First Nations communities and their health outcomes.
His eyes are very much open to disadvantage, and the role of Indigenous Australians in the future of the country. “I’m looking at the statistics [around] Indigenous health,” Humphries says. “Over the weekend there’s a fair bit of stuff with sovereignty and all the Australia ‘only one flag’ stuff. It’s been a lot in the news [recently], so it’s been going along with that theme.”
The AFL has not always been the best environment for people with First Nations backgrounds. While a record number of Indigenous players were on AFL lists in 2020, since that high of 87, the numbers have dropped every subsequent year. That trend was reported in May, the same week as Humphries kicked that memorable goal. After the game, he was asked how that trajectory could be reversed.
“It’s a bit of a hard one,” he says, noting the AFL, grassroots environments, and the community all have a role to play. “It’s a bit disappointing, but I think it’s just going to take a whole-scale approach.”
Humphries explained remote Indigenous communities in northern Australia simply don’t have the facilities and access to opportunity, and even he – as someone who grew up in the small mining town of Wickham – only made it because he left to board at Hale School in Perth. “But not everybody has that fortunate position, and that’s probably why I say, for me, to play AFL, I had to leave home at 13,” he says.
His father, Ross, hails from Narrogin in the south of the state, and is a former Aboriginal Studies academic at Curtin University who has spent the last three decades in and around the Pilbara, where he now works for Rio Tinto as their senior adviser for Indigenous communities.
There Ross met Humphries’ mother Jodi, who – along with a large family of aunties and uncles – has been proud to see their son share the traditions of their family. “I was raised by my grandparents, we were always within country, culture, family, and I wanted that for my children,” Jodi says. “So they have been involved with what I do with family, with culture, since they were born.”
Now working at the Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation in Derby, where the Cats’ No 17 was born, Jodi says her son’s outlook appears to have been influenced by her and her husband. “It comes naturally to us how we see the world and we try to reflect that in our kids, he obviously has been taking notice,” she says. “Both Ross and I are out there striving for the best for our people.”
Teammate Shaun Mannagh, who broke through last year alongside Humphries and was last week named by the Coaches’ Association as the best young player in the AFL despite his age of 28, says Humphries is “mature beyond his years”, and has made him look at the world differently. “We have really hard-hitting conversations between the two of us and, yeah, he makes me question my maturity sometimes,” he says.
Humphries has discussed issues around First Nations players in the AFL with others in the club too. “Some of the older boys obviously have a real interest about Indigenous affairs because we’ve had so many [players at the club],” he says, referencing Brandan Parfitt who left the Cats last year and is now starring in the WAFL, as well as small forward Tyson Stengle. “Probably me doing the [Indigenous] guernsey this year as well opened those conversations up a bit, so it’s been definitely something I’ve liked to implement within the group.”
Yet the passion for his culture is just one part of the rebounding defender, who describes himself as “pretty laid back”. Humphries says he has benefited from having a life outside footy, including a housemate with no connection to the sport, and an ability to get away. He visited Broome during a week off earlier this year and spent the pre-finals bye weekend in Lorne. “That’s what the club does really well, is give us that balance and allow us to do that,” he says.
He is now focused on the qualifying final against Brisbane on Friday, who edged Geelong in the preliminary final last year. Although Humphries has played just 33 matches – a fraction of the likes of veteran teammates Patrick Dangerfield and Tom Stewart – he feels he can offer something to those even less experienced, like defender Connor O’Sullivan. “He’s one of my closest mates, and he’s coming into his first finals series,” Humphries says. “I’m not experienced, but I guess I’m next to one of our least experienced players and probably feel like I’ve got a bit of a taste for it.”
