It was the schoolboy rugby skills of a desperate, diving Callum Mills which ultimately put the Swans into the grand final against Geelong.
With six seconds to play in last Saturday’s cut-throat preliminary final and the Swans hanging on against Collingwood in front of a packed SCG, Mills dived for the defensive goal line as if he was about to go over for the Wallabies.
The rushed behind left the Swans just one point in front, and the players, coaches and the sellout crowd in a state of high anxiety. As Jake Lloyd took his time kicking back into play, the siren sounded with the ball in mid-air. Mills clenched both fists above his head before charging off to celebrate with teammates.
“I was trying to figure out how long we had and what we had to do to kick out, and then as soon as Lloydy kicked out, the siren went, and it’s all a bit of a blur to be honest,” Mills said at the SCG on Monday. “There was just this loud roar from the crowd.”
In that diving, sliding movement which stopped the final advance from a fast finishing Collingwood, it could have been that athletic five-eighth from the Warringah Rats going over the line, not the co-captain of the Swans taking the club to its fourth grand final in the John Longmire coaching era.
Mills has an Aussie rules pedigree. His grandfather, Ray Mills, was a livewire half forward flanker or wingman in the West Australian Football League who was described as “explosively quick” by the Australianfootball.com website.
Callum Mills dives full length to put the ball through the Swans’ posts for a rushed behind.
So at his grandfather’s urging, young Cal began playing Auskick, quickly becoming so besotted he asked to be known by another name, Tony – as in Tony Lockett.
But Mills’ infatuation with the foreign code in Sydney didn’t last long. By the age of seven he was playing rugby with his mates at the Rats, where he stayed for six seasons.
Then Swans chairman Andrew Pridham made an intervention which had far-reaching ramifications. A friend of Mills’ father Darren, Pridham asked if Callum could fill in for his son’s junior team, the Mosman Swans.
It soon became apparent that the young Mills had something special. He was invited to join the Swans Academy, which is either an essential stepping stone for talented AFL prospects in the centre of the rugby league universe, or a free-kick for the AFL administration’s pet projects in non AFL states, depending on where the conversation is taking place.
Callum Mills playing rugby with the Warringah Rats in 2008.
Mills and teammate Isaac Heeney are star Swans Academy old boys who would probably be playing one of the rugby codes if they hadn’t been given special elite development opportunities.
“If you talk to any New South Wales person, they’d understand how important it’s been,” Mills said of the Academy. “When I was going through school, I was the only one playing [AFL] footy at school, and that’s when I was in the academy.
“And now at my school there’s heaps of people playing AFL and the game’s really growing. I truly believe it’s the academy that’s had the big impact with what’s going to go.
“It was the pathway of the academy that I was pretty keen on, and I’ve always loved the game. I just thought it was great for me when I was a teenager.
“When you go through rugby, everyone’s different sizes and weights. And with AFL you can be any size or shape. So that’s what I was really keen on.
Mills claims the lift in support for the Swans as a result of the game’s development has been “massive.”
“This city has been right behind us this last couple of weeks, and it’s been an exciting time. You can see the red and white everywhere.”
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