Testing times turn to triumph for Port Adelaide's Lewis Stevenson Power player and keen photographer Lewis Stevenson. LEWIS Stevenson is an extremely patient man - and a very resilient footballer. There is no other way to sum up one of the four trade gains Port Adelaide made in the spring when Angus Monfries came home from Essendon, Campbell Heath put aside repeated bad luck at Sydney and Jake Neade proved the Power could make a crafty deal again. On the surface Stevenson did not seem to have a storyline. Well, not one that could add to a very thin file that stayed that way for five years, despite being at one of the AFL's biggest clubs, West Coast, in a game renowned for over-exposure. Stevenson, 24, had been in the AFL system for five seasons. The midfielder West Coast converted to a defender did not play an AFL game in the previous two. His only AFL games (10 of them) were in 2010. It is hardly the reality Stevenson wanted from living his dream of being an AFL footballer at his favourite club. When the Power named Stevenson for its season opener against Melbourne at the MCG on March 31, 967 days had passed since the West Australian's last game as an Eagle. "It's been a fair while ... but I like to think I had worked pretty hard and stuck at it to give myself that opportunity," Stevenson says. Lewis Stevenson at Power training on Friday. I'd had that taste in 2010 and I just wanted to get that back. It's hard seeing some of your best mates playing every week when you want to be out there with them. You train the whole pre-season, you do a lot of work and you just want to be out there on match day being involved in the team atmosphere. That drove me to stay focused. I knew I would get there, even if there is still a lot of work to do. At Subiaco, the Eagles still admire Stevenson for his work ethic, skills and commitment to a chance that was minimised by West Coast having Adam Selwood, Beau Waters, Sam Butler and Shannon Hurn ahead of him on the defenders' pecking order. "It was frustrating," Stevenson recalls, "but it was a good experience also. I learned - as I said to (new Port coach) Ken (Hinkley) when I almost missed out playing against West Coast a few weeks ago - that I had to keep my head up. My football would suffer if I go down in the dumps about it, if I went into my shell and wasn't confident on the track and not training well. I learned pretty quickly last year that I had to be upbeat, looking to get better by training and playing well and consistent at WAFL level. It wasn't a waste of three years. It was a good learning curve. Stevenson was born to Australian football. His father, Bruce, was advancing to his 100-game WAFL milestone at the Perth Football Club before being sidelined by back injuries. "He likes to tell me he was a lot quicker than me when he played ... and that he held state records for the 100m," Stevenson says. He's had a big impact on my career, always coaching my teams at junior level. Working through the Claremont juniors put Stevenson on the best possible path in Perth to becoming an Eagle. West Coast claimed Stevenson as an 18-year-old with the No.12 pick in the 2008 rookie draft - and stockpiled him behind Waters, Butler, Hurn and Selwood. "I always wanted to play AFL footy," Stevenson said. The dream began to unfold against Sydney in round 5, 2010. All his 10 AFL games as an Eagle were in that season. And when he was best prepared to play AFL last season, the closest Stevenson came to the West Coast team bus was an emergency. "If I compare last year to 2010, I probably didn't deserve (an AFL game) back then ... we had quite a few guys out and the team was not going as well," Stevenson said. I feel I played the best football of my career last year and I didn't get a crack. As Stevenson was repeatedly named as an emergency last season, he accepted he had to get away from the logjam at West Coast. He was in Paris when Port closed the trade it signalled months before October's trade period. "I feel very grateful for the opportunity the (Power) recruiters have given me," he said. I'm looking to pay back that faith, that second chance they have given me. Stevenson today plays his seventh consecutive game for Port - a career best. His real AFL story is starting five years after it began.