Reaching the 200-game milestone on Thursday night is set to be the greatest moment of Touk Miller’s AFL career.
But he still recalls, as he describes it, one of the greatest moments of his life. It was late January 2022, when teammate David Swallow approached him at the club. After three seasons alongside ruckman Jarrod Witts, Swallow had enough of being captain and he wanted Miller to replace him.
Touk Miller is away from the footy fishbowl of Melbourne but is one of the AFL’s gun midfielders. Credit: AFL Photos
“For me, that is probably one of the most fulfilling moments and something that I’m super grateful for,” Miller told this masthead.
So imagine Miller’s feeling, almost three years later, when he was told it was his time to hand on the baton. The players had voted – Noah Anderson was to be the next captain of the Gold Coast Suns.
Miller admits that wasn’t an easy moment.
“Absolutely, you can’t hide from that fact,” he said.
“When something that doesn’t necessarily go your way, or something that you didn’t probably think was coming happens, you probably turn your nose up a little bit at the start.
“It’s up to you on how you react and, for me, how I envision the future in this club.
“I think Noah was more than capable of doing the role, and he was always going to be in this role at some point – it was a matter of time. And I think from for me to put aside my ego and allow someone to step into this role and, someone who I know was going to flourish and do great things, for the betterment of the club [was important]. It’s one of those moments, like, I can’t stand there and go, ‘Yeah, it was a really easy transition’.
Noah Anderson and John Noble celebrate a goal with Miller in the Suns’ win over the Bulldogs.Credit: AFL Photos
“If I told you I loved every part of it, I’d be lying. But in the same breath, it gave me a lot of lessons that you know you’re not entitled to everything that you think you might be.
“I think it gave me an opportunity just to be grateful for the opportunity that I did have, and an opportunity I got to give someone else now, and he’s really doing a fantastic job for us now, and I think we’re only going to just reap the rewards for more and more as the time goes on.
“So, it was a cool moment on reflection. It was a special moment as well.”
Miller has been there through all the tough times at the Suns. In his first 60 games, he sang the club song just 13 times.
The losses have taught him to appreciate the good times and to strive harder to taste victory more often.
His 150th game was a 10-goal win against the hapless North Melbourne. It’s undoubtedly a happy memory, but not one to savour. His 100th game was a disastrous 72-point loss at the hands of the Giants. At the time, it was the Suns’ 14th consecutive loss. He doesn’t even remember it. There had simply been too many for it to register.
But Miller’s 200th game looms as a pivotal moment for his team and so this milestone, like the relinquishing of the captaincy, is more about the club than it is about him.
A win against one of the premiership favourites in Hawthorn will announce the Suns as a team to be reckoned with in 2025. We haven’t said that about the franchise club midway through a season since the days of Gary Ablett jnr.
For a character like Miller, a born leader who so desperately wants to achieve team success, relinquishing the captaincy for the greater good was not an easy pill to swallow. Not immediately, at least.
But time can heal most wounds and, if anything, it’s made him a better player. It’s made him a better leader.
“To become captain, it was something that I had always prepared myself for, that I wanted to do. I think that, for me, the responsibility you take when you do step into that role is huge,” Miller said.
“As I think a lot of boys who have been in that space will tell you, it comes with a bit more responsibility in those who you talk to and where you probably spend your emotional tickets. And I think how you communicate from not just only with the boys around you, but, you know, the whole of the club … You do get pulled in a lot of different directions, but I think it’s just part of the role. And I loved it, 100 per cent.
“But, I also do get the benefits of now not being in that position, and what that feels like as well. I definitely relished in the opportunity I had when I was able to skipper the club.”
Three months after handing over the captain’s arm band, Miller isn’t living in the past. He’s embracing his new role as a seventh forward pushing into the midfield, and he wants Anderson to lean on him for any and all advice in his first season as skipper.
“It’s too much mental energy, like we’re preparing to get ready for a season where we want to go in and play finals … you can’t really be just lingering on something like that,” Miller said.
“The team needs me at my best playing footy, and the team needs Noah at his best playing footy.
“You need to be a good follower. That’s an important part of leadership. And I’ve been there when you’re standing there at a front, or you’re trying to deliver a point across to the group, and you know, you’ve got people in the room that have to want to step in and help you. It makes a massive difference to how you transfer that message.”
The change of captaincy came at the beginning of Damien Hardwick’s second season in charge of the Suns. After a disappointing first year under the triple premiership Tigers coach, Gold Coast sit fourth on the ladder with the best percentage in the league.
Hardwick’s impact has been felt by far more than just the players, according to Miller.
“No questions asked, the man knows how to build an organisation,” Miller said of his coach.
“I think that’s that’s probably the key part is he does. He knows how to build the team, yes, but I think he knows how to build the organisation. He spends his tickets where he needs to, and he just has full belief in what he’s what he’s doing.”
If the Suns salute against the Hawks on Thursday night in Darwin, it will be Miller’s 62nd win in 200 games – a winning percentage of just over 31 per cent.
To put that in perspective, Joel Selwood 200th game, a win against Sydney in 2015, was the 161st win of his career.
Miller and the Suns are looking for their seventh win in their past nine games. It’s not quite the same rate of success of Selwood’s, but it’s a whole lot better than previous years. And that puts a smile on the Sun’s face.
“I mean, you don’t want to say that winning is everything, OK, but when you do win and the team is winning, it helps.”
