Swans star Mills still playing catch-up with injury after rugby ruckus

An innocent decision to watch the Wallabies in person last month is continuing to haunt Sydney star Callum Mills, who is facing an uphill battle to prove his fitness for Saturday’s AFL elimination final against the Giants.

Mills was part of a group of 15 Swans and GWS players and officials who bought tickets for Australia’s rugby Test against France on July 13 at AAMI Park, which was later named as a coronavirus hotspot after several cases of confirmed transmission.

The genesis of Callum Mills’ Achilles troubles can be traced back to last month’s Wallabies Test in Melbourne.Credit:Getty

That forced the likes of Mills, Harry Cunningham and Giants firebrand Toby Greene into 14 days of self-isolation just minutes before they were due to play in the most recent Sydney derby in farcical scenes that perfectly encapsulated the wild ride this season has been.

As the two sides prepare to renew hostilities again on Saturday afternoon at Launceston’s UTAS Stadium, of all places, Swans coach John Longmire hailed their ability to keep their focus despite the constant disruptions they continue to experience this year, having spent the last two months and counting on the road.

Mills is in significant doubt to play due to an Achilles tendon problem, the genesis of which Longmire said can be traced back to that Wallabies match and the two weeks of quarantine that followed, during which the Swans lost their handle on management of the injury.

“When he was in isolation for those couple of games he missed, that didn’t do him any great assistance in his Achilles soreness,” he said.

John Longmire is proud of how the Swans and Giants have handled such a difficult year.Credit:Getty

“Just before that we were just getting on top of it, so he was able to come to hand quite well just before those two weeks that he missed. He didn’t get the load that he needed through those couple of weeks. That’s probably the thing we’re just trying to catch up on at the moment.”

Mills has played just one full match since his quarantine stint. He featured in Sydney’s big win over Gold Coast at the weekend but was subbed out in the third quarter when unable to overcome soreness in his Achilles region.

The Swans’ other big injury concern this week is Josh Kennedy, who is nursing a hamstring strain which kept him out of the Suns match. Longmire said they would know more about the veteran midfielder’s prognosis on Tuesday, but losing both him and Mills would leave their engine room desperately bare.

Longmire was moved to tears the last time his side met the Giants. They came from almost six goals down to win by 26 points, having learned just an hour beforehand that Mills, Harry Cunningham and Colin O’Riordon couldn’t play because they had been to the rugby.

Pre-match footage from the dressing rooms showed Longmire fully embracing the chaos, revving up his players as he told them that James Rowbottom, Dylan Stephens and Ben Ronke, who had all played a full match in the reserves the day before, had been thrown into the team.

“Some of the challenges that get thrown at you have been so far left field you can’t help but have a bit of a chuckle at them, whether that’s players being pulled out of the game or staff members, or being relocated the day of a game, and the game postponed,” Longmire said.

“Both clubs handled that pretty well. It impacted us both in a pretty big way. There’s no real handbook for it, to turn to page five and how to deal with this stuff. But we’re fortunate our playing group and our staff in particularly have pretty much adapted thinking on their feet and moving forward.

“Something tells me there’s still a few challenges ahead, so we’ll have to still be pretty good at that.”

Greene’s memories of that match are slightly less effusive, as one might suspect.

“I don’t think I took the news too well,” he said on Monday. “I was disappointed . . . staying in a hotel, I wasn’t too keen on that either.”

But Greene said he was proud of how the Giants had navigated such a challenging year to reach the finals, having recovered from a woeful 0-3 start to the season that had many questioning the future of coach Leon Cameron.

“It probably didn’t look as likely towards the start of the year. We’ve done really well to get here, and we’ll make the most of the opportunity,” Greene said.

“I guess being on the road for the last eight or nine weeks adds to it as well. When you’re in a hub, win or loss, it magnifies the situation. What we’ve been able to produce towards the back end of the season and get ourselves in a position to be in the finals.

“It’s been a really enjoyable year to be honest . . . an awesome opportunity to play the Swans again.”

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