When Mitch Lewis narrowly missed out on proving his fitness ahead of the Hawks Round 1 clash with Brisbane, he probably thought to himself, ‘there’s always next week’.

The young key forward faced a race against the clock to rehabilitate his ankle after spraining it in the club’s final pre-season hit-out against Melbourne in Launceston, but ultimately pulled up short.

Then, as he watched his teammates upset the supposed premiership contenders by 28 points, rumours of an imminent postponing to the season began to swirl.

Two days later, the club’s facility was empty as the squad came to grips with this concept of social isolation.

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“It was always going to be a push to get up for Round to be honest,” Lewis said.

“I think early in the week leading into Round 1, my ankle was feeling pretty good and we thought there was maybe a chance.

“But I pulled up badly after one of my running sessions and that sort of ruled me out.”

The 21-year-old said he has been able to alleviate the stress and frustration of not being able to do what he loves by basing himself at his girlfriend’s farm for the period.

“There’s a lot of room out on the farm to set up a little home gym so I’ve got that sorted and plenty of room to run around.

“There wouldn’t have been much room for me to do all that in my apartment-living set-up in the city!”

“A lot of the boys were encouraged to get out of the city so that they could run around and not go crazy being couped up in their houses.

“It’s really good being in the country - you’re pretty much outside all day, you forget about everything that is going on and you feel you can disconnect from all of the issues in the world.”