Player Watch #14 Callum Mills (c)

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Callum Mills

Callum Mills is one of the best young players in the AFL. The QBE Sydney Swans Academy graduate won the 2016 AFL Rising Star award and was selected in the AFL Players’ Association’s 22Under22 team in three of his four eligible years. Mills is a small defender with uncompromising courage who’s also capable of shifting through the midfield. The New South Welshman was elevated to Sydney’s leadership group during the 2018 pre-season at the age of just 21, and he’s now a member of a five-man leadership panel alongside co-captains Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and Dane Rampe, as well as Lance Franklin.

Callum Mills
DOB: 02 April 1997
DEBUT: 2016
DRAFT: #3, 2015 National Draft
RECRUITED FROM: North Shore (NSW)

 
Feb 5, 2012
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They may as well have been talking Latin in that video!
I mean I understood what they were saying re Mills, our midfield etc, but boy all that Keeper League, D2, D1 stuff - absolutely no idea what they were on about.
Some of them know what they're talking about, some have little to no idea, some I wouldn't put out if they were on fire.
 
I think everyone is hoping Mills makes it as a quality A grade midfielder. He sure has plenty of the needed attributes, but I wonder how well he reads ruck contests and takes advantage. This for me is crucial to success as a mid. Pendles, Oliver, Mitchell and even the good day Libba are examples of current players who are expert at reading ruck contests and winning first possession.

In general play, Mills seems an expert reader whether the ball is in the air or on the ground. Can he translate this ability to roving ruck contests, particularly centre bounces? What do others think?
 
I think everyone is hoping Mills makes it as a quality A grade midfielder. He sure has plenty of the needed attributes, but I wonder how well he reads ruck contests and takes advantage. This for me is crucial to success as a mid. Pendles, Oliver, Mitchell and even the good day Libba are examples of current players who are expert at reading ruck contests and winning first possession.

In general play, Mills seems an expert reader whether the ball is in the air or on the ground. Can he translate this ability to roving ruck contests, particularly centre bounces? What do others think?
Imo he is more Hodge like and looks the part as a HBF and go in the mid for spurts

Yer his juniors days were mids but that doesn’t mean anything imo
 
Imo he is more Hodge like and looks the part as a HBF and go in the mid for spurts

Yer his juniors days were mids but that doesn’t mean anything imo

Hope you are wrong. We really need an A grade clearance specialist especially at centre bounces under the 666 rule. Parker, Hewett and (now, sadly) JPK are B graders. Heeney is prolly better as a second receiver than as a reader of ruck contests.

At various times I've seen Mills more as a Kenny Hunter or Neale Daniher type swingman who can be as equally devestating forward or back. But the Club has to make do with what it has.
 
Jul 9, 2014
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Imo he is more Hodge like and looks the part as a HBF and go in the mid for spurts

Yer his juniors days were mids but that doesn’t mean anything imo

Agree. Not hard to imagine him leading us to a threepeat from back there. :)
Hope the urgency of filling the hole in our midfield doesn’t cloud our judgment as to how we best use this young gun.
 
Agree. Not hard to imagine him leading us to a threepeat from back there. :)
Hope the urgency of filling the hole in our midfield doesn’t cloud our judgment as to how we best use this young gun.

Even if it does not work out brilliantly, he will be better than what we have and it will not harm his development even if he goes back to the HB.
 
I'm telling ya, put a contract infront of Clayton Oliver that will make him the highest paid player over the next 8 years.

Damn this Forum. All I want is a button allowing me to like Cadsky's post in flashing neon.
 
Damn this Forum. All I want is a button allowing me to like Cadsky's post in flashing neon.

I agree. Oliver and Cripps are easily the two best mids in the comp at the minute (apart from when Fyfe is up and going) I think Heeney has the potential to be as good as if not better than them, but it's a matter of whether he fulfils that potential or not. This is why I just wonder whether it's the right move holding off putting a player in their preferred position (ie playing Heeney forward instead of mid, Mills on the half back instead of mid). I know we don't want them burnt out by the time they're 28, but I also don't see the point in holding them off, taking the conservative route while other young mids dominate for their club.

Angus Brayshaw for example. All the issues with his head and Goodwin still had the confidence to just throw him straight in the guts on his comeback. He goes on to come third in the Brownlow (at the same age as Heeney!) and be part of a dominant midfield that reached a preliminary final. I also think it's no coincidence that Florent had a meteoric improvement in 2018 after being backed in to play a full-time midfield role on the wing. Now we're at the point where we are ready and desperate for Mills to fulfil his destined midfield role, and instead of Mills being ready to have his break-out year as a midfielder (which wouldn't be an unfair expectation given he turns 22 next month, same age as Oliver), we're preparing to show patience as he takes his first baby steps as a midfielder after three years in defence.

Just not sure we took the right route with Mills.
 
Feb 28, 2007
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Yer old and slow , one him a norm smith , also should have got it in the 14 GF
Defining tackle in the 14 PF

Absolute gun of HB

Playing Mills back there is a complete waste of his talents. It would be like trying to turn Buddy into a half back because he is a good field kick. Sure he is, but it would still be wasting his talents playing him back there.
 
Jul 20, 2001
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Gun half backs are easier to find than gun midfielders.

Mills hasn’t proven to be a gun midfielder as yet. He may well do, but he is pretty handy for us at half back as well.

He and Jones might split some time between mids and half back.
 
Playing Mills back there is a complete waste of his talents. It would be like trying to turn Buddy into a half back because he is a good field kick. Sure he is, but it would still be wasting his talents playing him back there.
What a stupid comparison

Mills has already showed tremendous talent from HB , reading of the play etc , etc etc

He would not be wasted
 
Feb 28, 2007
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Mills hasn’t proven to be a gun midfielder as yet. He may well do, but he is pretty handy for us at half back as well.

He and Jones might split some time between mids and half back.

He should be given a chance to prove it then since the Swans desperately need a stronger midfield. Whereas Thurlow can adequately do what Mills did in 2017/2018. In fact that is why we recruited him.
 
Jul 20, 2001
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He should be given a chance to prove it then since the Swans desperately need a stronger midfield. Whereas Thurlow can adequately do what Mills did in 2017/2018. In fact that is why we recruited him.

From what I have seen thus far, Thurlow does not read the play anywhere near as good as Mills.

As far as the midfield goes, we have Clarke coming in who appears to be a gut runner in the Hannebery mould. You’d expect Florent will go up another gear. Heeney with a full preseason for perhaps the first time, and ready to take his game to a new level. On top of that you have Hewett about to hit his straps. Kennedy not carrying an injury. Jones, Mills and Papley spending time in the middle at times.

So I think we are set for improvement in that area anyway, regardless if Mills spends some of his time or even a lot of his time at half back.
 

RW

Cancelled
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Jan 11, 2003
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I always thought Mills would eventually play in the midfield, but I remember Gerard Healy once described him as being "Bruce Doull like" at half back with his reading of the play so maybe that's his best position.
 
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