Wayne Milera proves there is life after Brodie Smith for the Crows
WAYNE Milera has thanked the man he has replaced, injured teammate Brodie Smith, for helping him to become Adelaide’s new go-to defender.
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WAYNE Milera has thanked the man he has replaced, injured teammate Brodie Smith, for helping him to become Adelaide’s new go-to defender.
In a breakthrough performance that augurs well for the Crows’ premiership chances, Milera produced the game of his life at half-back in the eight-goal drubbing of Gold Coast on Saturday night, winning a career-high 33 disposals.
He then paid tribute to the fallen Smith, who hopes to return from a knee reconstruction just before the finals, for his support in turning him from a dangerous forward/wingman to rebounding backman.
“Smithy’s been really good to me and is always giving me a hand,’’ 20-year-old Milera said.
“Obviously he can’t play at the moment but he’s helping me learn how to play his role.
“I watched a lot of his (video) clips over summer and studied his running patterns and how he plays this position and he’s always offering advice and helping me at training.
“To be able to play so well (against the Suns) and have him come up to me after the game, give me a big handshake and say good work, I’m pretty happy with that.’’
Milera’s 33 disposals smashed his previous best of 23, while he significantly went at 85 per cent disposal efficiency and gained 377 metres for his team.
“I can’t remember ever cracking 30 disposals before, maybe when I was a junior, junior back in under-12 footy with Ingle Farm, but certainly not for a long time.’’ he told The Advertiser.
It was just the 2015 No. 11 draft pick’s second full game at half-back, following last week’s match against Sydney.
And he shone brightly, giving coach Don Pyke genuine belief that he can adequately replace 2014 All-Australian Smith, who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in last year’s finals.
“With Brodie being out it was one of those ones where everything lined up to say ‘let’s trial him as a back’,’’ Pyke said of Milera.
“He’s got great running capacity, he’s a good user of the footy and has some good lateral movement, so we felt those attributes were potentially going to work for us off half-back.
“Defensively, he’s really solid and gives us that run and bounce, which we saw (against Gold Coast). He found his feet there.’’
Milera revealed he was told by Pyke at the start of pre-season training that he was the chosen one to fill the void left by Smith.
“So I trained with the defensive group all summer,’’ he said.
“I reckon I’d only played at half-back once before — in an under-18 State game for SA — so I’ve had to learnt do defend first and then spread and run from there, which is my game and my weapon.
“Obviously I’m still learning the role but I take a lot of confidence out of this game.’’
Milera, who has played 29 games since debuting in round one, 2016, missed 10 weeks of training after Christmas because of patella tendinitis in both knees.
He missed Adelaide’s round one loss to Essendon before being picked for the grand final rematch against Richmond in round two.
andrew. capel@news.com.au
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