Mitch Owens is a bit like his mother’s native land, Japan: suddenly, the St Kilda teenager is all the rage. And occasionally, there is a bit of Ross Lyon-speak to interpret, harder even than Japanese.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Mitchito Owens says the first word he spoke was “do itashimashite”. In Japanese, it means “you’re welcome”.
Owens grew up and still lives 10 minutes down the road from St Kilda’s Moorabbin base and had a classic southern suburbs footy and school upbringing, but he came to the clubestablished by the AFL at each club to further Indigenous and multicultural representation. So it was that the Saints were able to match a bid from Sydney to secure him at 33 in the 2021 draft.
Owens attributes his emergence to a heavy-duty pre-season shared with the Saints’ tight cohort of younger players, notably fellow academy graduate Marcus Windhager. “Especially Marcus. He’s very fit,” he said. “I was just trying to chase him all the time. Even in the gym. We’re both very competitive, so that helps.”
Owens is not yet 20 and not every element of AFL footy has come as easily to him as he sometimes makes it look. “The mental side of it has been pretty hard,” he said. “It’s hard to play consistent footy, as everyone would know. It can get to you a bit mentally. If you have one or two bad games, you’re like: what am I doing different? What’s wrong? I struggled with that a bit.”The extra attention that comes with greater prominence also has challenged him.
There, he played for the Samurais in a rudimentary AFL league in Tokyo and met Maki and so it began. Now Kai is playing for Frankston and excited some interest in last year’s mid-season draft, Tomo is playing footy seriously for the first time after a stint playing basketball in Japan, and Mitch is the new darling of Saints’ fans. “We’re a very competitive household,” Owens said.
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