During the recent NRL off-season, Chris Lewis returned to his family's Wagyu cattle farm at Ashford after his emotional breakthrough NRL season.

In 2020 and at age 27, he became the Storm's oldest-ever debutant. He went on to make five appearances that year, mostly off the bench.

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The back-rower - applauded and rewarded for his tenacity in the face of serious injuries over the years - was in and out of the Storm's lineup last season.

But over the opening three rounds this season, he has been used as an interchange.

And at AAMI Park in Melbourne on Friday night, that will happen again when the Storm look to rebound from two early losses by dispatching a Broncos side who are coming off their first win of the year.

Lewis's 55 minutes in a last-round 12-10 loss to Penrith was the most he had been used this year.

He said it was "good to get some minutes in and show you can play at that level".

It was also "really encouraging", he added, to know that Storm coach Craig Bellamy "trusts you".

"It's a big vote of confidence in me," he said.

"But it's also good to know that a club like the Melbourne Storm trusts you with a two-year deal and backs you - it's pretty crazy.

"It's a bit different to casual teaching."

Lewis was playing for the Sunshine Coast Falcons, and teaching at Caloundra State High, when the Storm offered him a 12-month development deal for last season.

He then inked a two-year deal, becoming a member of Melbourne's 30-man NRL squad.

But it's easy for him to stay grounded: "I always talk to my teacher mates when they're doing reports. And remembering that I escaped having to do reports for the semester is always a nice little reality check for me.

"And I talk to my mum and dad quite regularly about what's happening on the farm, with droughts and then floods, that sort of thing ... It sort of makes me feel really grateful for being able to play golf on a Wednesday."

That's what Lewis was doing when he spoke to the Times this week.

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Rewind a few months and he was showing his folks that he was not a "shrinking violet" by working on the family farm.

Mick Lewis - a long-serving former principal of Ashford Central School and a former Group 19 president - coached his son when he was a junior.

"It's always great to get out there and see what real people are doing, and you're not sticking in that bubble of the NRL," Lewis said of being back home.

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