Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis admits North Melbourne was a team that worked out how to get under his skin during his playing days.
Early in his career, Lewis said the Roos would actively “bait” him in order to draw a reaction.
“After speaking to a few North Melbourne players, they knew that I didn’t make great decisions on the ground, so they would just bait me,” Lewis told SEN Breakfast.
“They knew I couldn’t control myself sometimes, so they’d just niggle me.”
Lewis revealed earlier in the week that North defender Daniel Pratt was one player in particular who liked to get rile him up.
“One of the players I had issues with early was Daniel Pratt. We used to just niggle at each other,” the four-time premiership Hawk said.
“He’s one of the great blokes now. We laugh about it and we usually catch up over summer.
“It was a bit of both (verbal and physical). We were probably like-minded characters and people on the footy field. A bit hot-headed and really competitive.”
Lewis was suspended for two weeks back in 2015 for striking North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein in the head during a marking contest.
The former All-Australian midfielder regrets it greatly and says it even impacted his wife at work.
“That was a funny night. Both of those incidents (Luke Hodge was sent to the tribunal for striking Andrew Swallow) were shocking incidents … it wasn’t a great look,” Lewis said.
“My wife was a primary school teacher, so she didn’t like going to school on a Monday and have the parents say: ‘What did Jordan do on the weekend?’ She was really embarrassed by it,” he said.
“I used to consciously go into games and say ‘no, don’t bite back, don’t bite back'. But (I did).”
