Rookie Mills rising to challenge of star recruit
Greg Denham
The Australian, September 5
Buddy Franklin is not often overshadowed by a teenager yet to play his first game, but that was the case in February in the Swans star’s comeback in a NAB Challenge game.
The Australian reported that the sparkling form of Callum Mills against Port Adelaide in the preseason series excited Sydney officials just as much as seeing Franklin back on the park for the first time since withdrawing from last season’s finals series with personal issues, including a mental health problem.
Mills, who had made a name for himself previously as a quality under-age midfielder and an All Australian (under-18) in that position, was accumulating disposals at half-back in his maiden game.
A few weeks shy of his 19th birthday, Mills had six possessions in the opening five minutes. He amassed 16 by half-time and finished with 22 disposals and five marks, prompting co-captain and stand-in coach Jarrad McVeigh to comment favourably on his efficiency and composure.
The overall No 3 selection in last November’s national draft became the first player to attract a bid under the AFL’s new points bidding system. The Swans Academy product was bid on by Melbourne, who offered their first pick for him.
While Mills has a rich Australian football heritage — his grandfather Ray Mills played 110 games for Perth in the WAFL, including three premierships in the 1960s, and represented Western Australia four times — the Sydney-born lad played junior rugby union.
It was not until 2010, when Mills was 13 that he switched codes through a series of events involving current Swans chairman Andrew Pridham, a Mills family friend, who was a club director at the time. Mills earned a spot in Sydney’s elite academy after playing with the North Shore Bombers.
Timing of bye weekend works perfectly for Tippett to ruck and roll
Peter Lalor
The Australian, September 5
Lance Franklin isn’t too keen on the bye weekend, but his teammate Kurt Tippett admits that it is perfect timing for him.
The Swans ruckman returned for the last two rounds of the home-and-away season after missing nine games to a hamstring injury and is still feeling his way back to peak fitness.
Tippett has not had a good run since joining the Swans.
He was suspended for the first 12 games at the club for breaching contract rules when at Adelaide and then missed the first seven games of the 2014 season to injury.
Last year he was able to take the field in every match but injuries to other key players saw the Swans fall short of the grand final game.
A key ruckman and competitor, Tippett tore his hamstring below the knee when he was twisting in the air during a ruck contest against the Giants in round 12. He required surgery and knew he would be cutting it fine if he were to make it back for the finals.
“I think you are a little bit anxious,” he said. “When the doctor said it was going to be eight or nine weeks I started looking at the calendar and figuring out where I was going to slot back in.
“You have to hope that everything goes smoothly, it is a fine line between rushing to get back and I knew that if I had any little setback then I would probably miss the finals series.
“It was touch and go, but the physios and docs were brilliant in guiding me as to when I should push and when I shouldn’t.”
Callum Mills, Caleb Daniel to do battle for Rising Star crown
Sam Landsberger
Daily Telegraph, September 5
CALLUM Mills grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches idolising Wallabies George Gregan and Stephen Larkham.
Before joining the Swans’ talent academy, Mills played junior rugby as a five-eighth.
Caleb Daniel’s first sporting love was rugby league and the Queensland kid looked up to Darren Lockyer and Cameron Smith.
Not long out of nappies, Daniel would run around the backyard setting up try conversions to the sounds of him impersonating television commentator Darrell Eastlake.
On Tuesday, either Mills or Daniel is expected to be crowned the 2016 AFL NAB Rising Star.
Last year’s No.1 draft pick Jacob Weitering’s year controlling Carlton’s backline has been as composed as any debutant that AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan can remember.
Wayne Carey says athletic Collingwood goalkicker Darcy Moore has the attributes to surpass the league’s suite of promising young full-forwards.
Darcy Parish belied his light frame to play as an inside midfielder and finish top-10 in Essendon’s best-and-fairest voting.
And as for Christian Petracca?
The Melbourne midfielder overcame a serious knee injury in 2015 to dazzle with his power, speed and class.
But the 2016 campaigns by Callum and Caleb – instant selection locks at clubs in premiership mode – are set to have them covered.
Hannebery finally feels at home in Sydney
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 5
WHEN you come from a Melbourne sporting family as strong as Dan Hannebery’s, the pull from your old home town is always going to be strong.
But as the All-Australian midfielder prepares to take on GWS in a historic final at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, at last he’s declared himself a true Sydneysider.
“I’ve been here for eight years now so I should be calling Sydney home by now,” Hannebery told the Daily Telegraph.
“We’re a big family, on mum and dad’s side and we are really close. I probably don’t go back to Melbourne anywhere near as much as I used to in the first few years in Sydney.”
Barry thinks current team can be better than 2005 premiers
James Buckley
SMH, September 5
Sydney premiership hero Leo Barry believes the current Swans incarnation can be better than the team that won the 2005 premiership.
Barry, who helped the Swans snap a 72-year flag drought that year with a match-winning pack mark late on against West Coast, has been a keen observer of the 2016 side that finished the regular season as the AFL's best team.
The Swans are warm favourites to book a spot in the preliminary final when they head to ANZ Stadium on Saturday to square off against cross-town rivals GWS.
They closed out the season with six successive wins, and three more would secure a third premiership in 11 seasons.
"What really stands out, they are consistent across the board like I think we were through that 2005 and 2006 season," Barry said. "The Swannies have got an absolute A-grade midfield. We had a good midfield but we probably didn't have the likes of the real ball winners like [Daniel] Hannebery, [Luke] Parker and [Josh] Kennedy not to downplay the guys we did have in the midfield.
"They're a great team and they've proven that this year with getting five guys in the All Australian which is a huge effort. I've got no doubt that they can certainly challenge again this year."
The rise of football in the Harbour City
Daniel Cherney
SMH, September 5
Expectations for football were low in Sydney during the first half of the 1990s. Then Swans general manager Ron Joseph remembers the mindset of the club's small band of fans during a period that reached its nadir during a 26-match losing streak across 1992 and 1993.
"They'd be eight goals down at half-time and people would stand up and clap them off the ground," Joseph recalls.
So, what if he'd been told then 23 years later the pylons of the Sydney Harbour bridge would be illuminated every night this week with images of footballers from not just the Swans – but from a second club playing out of Sydney – ahead of a finals match between the two clubs?
"I probably would have been very off-handed, because at that stage Sydney was a hopeless case, let alone setting up another club," he says.
Jack says the Swans still have plenty to achieve this season
Jess Halloran
Daily Telegraph, September 4
SWANS co-captain Kieren Jack has dubbed his side an “exceptional team” but feels they still have plenty to achieve.
Five Swans players were propelled into this year’s All Australian side and the team is again AFL premiership favourites after finishing the regular season in first position.
Josh Kennedy, Dan Hannebery, Lance Franklin Dane Rampe and Luke Parker were all selected.
“The All-Australian selection was a great recognition for those players, but I think it also recognises the entire team itself,” Jack said.
“Those five players have been exceptional all year but I think we have been an exceptional team for the whole year too. It’s allowed them to do what they do; bring their strengths to the table.”
Stars light up bridge
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 3
The gloves are off as Sydney and GWS prepare for battle
Neil Cordy
Daily Telegraph, September 3
WHEN Josh Kennedy said sledging the Giants’ Lachie Whitfield wasn’t off limits at the All-Australian presentation this week, the gloves well and truly came off.
GWS won’t speak publicly about the comments but they’ve been noted, stored away in the Giants’ ammunition pile for Saturday’s historic all-Sydney final at ANZ Stadium.
The words will have just added fire to what was already a tantalising clash between the young upstart Giants and the establishment Swans.
It’s a match that promises so much already — and there’ll be another battle going on in the coaches box between John Longmire and Leon Cameron which is one for the footy purists.
It’s a classic confrontation between a heavily contested team (the Swans) and an outside team (the Giants) who can move the ball at lightning speed into their forward 50.
It’s not to say Longmire’s men can’t move the ball quickly with the speed of players like Gary Rohan and the field kicking of Lance Franklin but their greatest strength is in the contest where their mature bodies are dominant.
Cameron’s men can also win their fair share of inside ball with players like Callan Ward, Stephen Coniglio, Dylan Shiel and Ryan Griffen but it’s their speed which worries Sydney and every other team they’ve faced this year, including triple premiers Hawthorn.
This week Champion Data released the figures that matter, summing up the home-and-away season that was.
They tell a story and are sure to give an indication of how Saturday’s qualifying final will play out.
