The brutal grand final history that will leave Swans wary of backing injured Mills

John Longmire has had major decisions to make on injured players in three of his previous four grand finals as coach. Twice, he backed sore stars and lost. The time he made the brutal call, he won.

That is the backdrop to Swans skipper Callum Mills’ race to be fit for this year’s decider.

Injured Swans skipper Callum Mills (left) with Will Hayward after the preliminary final win over Port Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos

But the Swans are breathing a sigh of relief after senior defender Dane Rampe escaped suspension for a high hit on Zak Butters. Rampe can accept a $2500 fine for a strike graded as careless with low impact.

Mills injured his hamstring at training on September 10. Hamstrings typically require a minimum recovery period of 21 days. The last Saturday in September will be day 18. Even though Mills’ injury is said to be very minor, his selection would come with a risk.

Mills trained on Friday morning and pulled up well. He will need to train this week without awareness of his hamstring to progress.

There is hope inside the club for Mills, though he cannot be much better than a 50-50 prospect. There are recent precedents in Mills’ favour.

Michael Hibberd (right) with Steven May after the Demons’ 2021 grand final triumph.Credit: AFL Photos

Melbourne defender Steven May went into the 2021 grand final with a hamstring strain he later revealed would have ruled him out for four weeks in the home-and-away season. May was limited but held his opponent Aaron Naughton to just a goal.

In 2022, Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps returned after one week out for 32 disposals and three goals in a best-on-ground performance. Another Blue, Adam Saad, also missed just the one game late this year after a minor strain.

As Mills is captain, there will be greater trust in his judgment but Longmire and football boss Leon Cameron are all too aware of the dangers of fielding injured players in grand finals.

Two years ago, a forlorn Longmire spoke candidly of his mistake in picking key forward Sam Reid, who was subbed out just before half-time with an adductor strain suffered in the preliminary final.

Sam Reid was subbed off with an injury in the 2022 AFL grand final.Credit: AFL Photos

His selection created disruption elsewhere, forcing out young forward Logan McDonald for Hayden McLean, who was needed to play Reid’s minutes as the second ruck.

“Personally, you feel like you’ve let a lot of people down,” Longmire said after the Swans’ 2022 grand final hammering.

“You let your players down, you let your supporters down, you let your staff down, you let your board down. That’s how you feel.”

McDonald is also under an injury cloud after rolling an ankle on Friday night. He underwent scans on Saturday and the early indications are positive.

Logan McDonald of the Swans leaves the field with an ankle complaint.Credit: AFL Photos

In 2016, the Swans recalled Mills and Jarrad McVeigh for the grand final after soft-tissue injuries in week one of the finals. Both played out the game but had middling impact in a 22-point loss.

Four years earlier, Ben McGlynn pulled up sore on the Tuesday of grand final week after putting his injured hamstring through a running session. Mitch Morton played instead, booting two key goals in an epic victory over Hawthorn.

Cameron was at the helm for Greater Western Sydney in 2019 when co-captain Phil Davis passed a game-day fitness test to play. The Giants were hammered.

Whether any of those results would have been different if the injured players didn’t play is impossible to know, but they will inform Sydney’s judgment on Mills.

Mills was far from bullish when he spoke to Seven on Friday night. “I’ll give it a crack this week and we’ll see how we go,” Mills said.

Longmire was non-committal on Saturday when asked about Mills’ chances leading his team onto the MCG.

“Certainly hopeful, he trained yesterday, he did a good job,” Longmire said on 3AW. “He had a really good session, we’ll see how he goes.

“I had a chat with him this morning. He feels good today, pulled up pretty well. We’ll see how the week progresses and see what it gives us.”

‘Legs were like jelly’: Amartey rides emotional wave

Jonathan Drennan

After big wins, Sydney’s change room in the SCG is always busy, but after Friday night’s 36-point preliminary final demolition over Port Adelaide, it was strained almost beyond capacity.

In the middle of it all, forward Joel Amartey couldn’t stop smiling, and why not? After scoring the winning goal in the qualifying final against the Giants, he followed up on Friday night with dominant three-goal performance that helped propel his Swans side into the grand final next Saturday against either Geelong or the Brisbane Lions.

Joel Amartey of the Swans marks against Port Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

It will be Amartey’s first grand final after missing out on selection in 2022 and after being asked what the achievement of getting to the last weekend in September meant to him, he was almost lost for words.

“I don’t even know at the moment,” Amartey said. “It will probably take me 48 hours for it all to come to mind and realise what we’ve done, we’ve just got to soak it up for the next day or two and then get back to business.”

In the qualifying final against the Giants, the SCG crowd had been loud, but against Port Adelaide in the preliminary final it became difficult for the players to hear each other on the ground.

Amartey admitted that the raucous 44,053 fans in the ground had caused him to catch his breath after the first bounce.

“The first half I was floating in air, my legs were like jelly,” Amartey said. “It took me about half a game of footy to realise what was going on. But you know, the boys just [went] contest by contest, and we got through.”

Amartey has averaged 1.8 goals a game this year, aided by a career-high nine goals against Adelaide in round 14. Against Port Adelaide, the full-forward provided a strong target for the Swans and grew in confidence as the game went on.

Amartey believes that his game should not just be judged simply on goals, even if they came a little easier against Port Adelaide, with a major in each of the first three quarters.

“All we do, is everyone just plays their role,” Amartey said. “My role last week [against the Giants] was to compete, bringing the ball to ground and ‘Paps’ [Tom Papley] last week did the damage, and now everyone got their lick of the ice cream tonight ... whoever kicks the goals, kicks the goals, as long as we’re winning.”

There will be a brief moment to celebrate the victory against Port Adelaide, but Amartey and his teammates are aware that the job is far from finished with either the Lions or Cats looming at the MCG.

If Amartey needs someone to discuss the pressure of playing in a grand final, he doesn’t need to look far, given he has several teammates from the 2022, 2016 and 2014 losses with Luke Parker to call on from the 2012 premiership.

“A lot of the boys have played in grannies,” Amartey said.

“I haven’t, so I’m sure they’ll talk me through and all the boys who haven’t played in grannies before talk through it. We’ve beaten Port, we know our game stacks up against the best team, and it’s all we can do.”

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