Sherminator.
Club Legend
Thanks BC
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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
Wade Mills
- Thread starter lions_den
- Start date
- Tagged users None
- Dec 7, 2001
- 23,438
- 8,509
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
yeh, exceptional mark. but you did cringe as you knew the kick could go anywhere. lol
Billybootlace
Draftee
Capper played leaque football as well, does not make him a good judge. i will trust the good judges many think mills has a real future & potential leader
Yeah. In a way, he reminds me of Joel MacDonald before his knee reconstruction. Joel kicked more often though.
Sherminator.
Club Legend
Definately the thing the club will be working on the pre season is his kicking, can't have a CHB who can't kick. We knew he had a strange kicking action when we drafted him back in 2006.
rugmop
Senior List
The man is completely lacking in confidence, probably because people have said things about him like those written in this thread. Not convinced he got it yet, but the bugger tries very hard. He runs very quickly for a man of his size and has awareness. It may just be a matter of finding his true position.
Mills flies under radar to make his mark
11:34 AM Mon 6 August, 2007
By Simon White
for lions.com.au
http://lions.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/5085/Default.aspx?newsId=48652
CASUAL observers might wager on either Jonathan Brown or Jared Brennan to take the best mark by a Brisbane Lions player in 2007.
After all, Brown, a past winner of the AFL Mark of the Year, regularly gets the fans gasping by fearlessly throwing himself back with the flight of ball. And spring-heeled Brennan has long promised to launch himself on an opponent’s shoulder and snatch one from the clouds.
But those watching the Brisbane Lions demolish Carlton a fortnight ago probably reckoned the most spectacular grab so far this season was taken by defender-turned-forward Wayde Mills.
Mills earned a Toyota AFL Mark of the Week nomination with his ride on the shoulders of the Blues’ Irishman, Setanta O’hAilpin, and he was again in the spotlight in Saturday night’s 37-point win over the Kangaroos at the Gabba.
The 19-year-old’s six marks included an excellent pack mark in the third quarter, and he managed to kick the first two goals of his AFL career – including the Lions’ opener.
”It’s always good to get the first one on board – it was about time I kicked one,” a happy Mills said after the match.
”My role doesn’t give me that many shots, but I suppose I hadn’t been taking my chances either.
”Form probably shows I’m not really that confident [kicking for goal]. But I wasn’t too worried about it. If I’m in range, I’m going to have a shot.”
Mills, the No.25 pick of the 2005 National Draft, has become an integral part of the Lions’ forward line after being called up to senior action for the Round 14 clash with the West Coast Eagles.
The Lions haven’t lost a match since, and in his post-match media conference on Saturday night coach Leigh Matthews praised his young charge’s efforts.
”He [Mills] kicked two important goals,” Matthews said.
”When we had shots early on and missed, someone had to kick one and release the pressure. Millsy was the one who actually went and kicked the 45-metre goal.
”The pressure he and Robbie Copeland and Jared Brennan are putting on the opposition complements Jonathan [Brown], who is always likely to have the most shots at goal.”
Copeland and the 195cm Mills, as converted defenders, are playing slightly unorthodox forward roles, in that they are expected to defend as much – and occasionally more – than they are required to pose a goalkicking threat.
Mills, in particular, has been pushing up the ground to offer a leading target and link up with the Lions’ midfield, using the “motor” that allowed him to play much of his junior career in the midfield.
He admits his move into the forward 50 metres at AFL level came as a surprise, but he is determined to make the most of his opportunities in a senior team that has muscled its way into the top eight with five consecutive wins.
”There’s always a feel you can make [the finals] until you lose more than 11 games, but I guess we were a pretty long shot six weeks ago,” Mills said.
”Now we’ve got our destiny in our hands. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we can make the finals. Hopefully we can go on with it.”
Mills is a make a contest footballer, it is something every team wants their big fellas to do, make a contest and present, he does those things. Mills has a great work ethic and that work ethic will see him clean up the deficiencies in his game. What he has suprised us all with is his pack marking ability. You can see he gets his hands on the ball in the marking contest alot and is starting to bring them down. I believe he will one day have bucket hands (C.Wood is the same). Very happy with Millsy at the moment. Just still working out whether not playing M.Clark may come and bite us on the bum towards the end of the season if he doesn't get a game for the rest of the year.
While solid on the lead and a good grab, the problem with Mill's is he is becoming a little predictable with his lack of confidence to take a kick. For sure he knows his limits but it doesn't take long in a game for the opposition to twig to it and watch for the handoff. As soon as he takes the grap he's constantly looking behind for a runner and doesn't even at least pretend that he is going to kick. That said I haven't watched the game from the weekend in which he kicked two so maybe he is improving and I have no doubt that the coaching staff is setting him right.
POBT
Brownlow Medallist
Nope - he handed off most times. While I agree it is predictable, I actually think it is very difficult to counteract. He is getting and distributing the ball very quickly. More importantly, it encourages our runners to work hard to make position to get and deliver the pill to a forward target. In that sense, the predictability is an advantage because our mids knows exactly where to run.
