How Callum Mills and Sydney’s homegrown talent hold key to club’s culture

Orazio Fantasia tapped his heels together three times. The Swans bid farewell to Jordan Dawson in a deal with Adelaide and native sons Sam Petrevski-Seton and Jordan Clark headed back west.

The young family effect also took hold, with Lachie Neale allegedly weighing up a move to Perth and Jeremy Finlayson following his partner Kellie home to South Australia to be closer to family.

West Coast and Fremantle are safe in the knowledge that Western Australian products seem to have a homing beacon that brings their boys back.

The right of return that is afforded athletes when home calls is a difficult challenge, one especially arduous for the NSW and Queensland clubs.

Brisbane have spent the last decade reorienting their focus to breeding Lions on the banks of the brown snake and, clearly, the strategy is working.

For the Sydney Swans, the importance of homegrown talent has never been more crucial.

In their efforts to take full advantage of the country‘s largest talent pool, the Swans have adopted a similar strategy to Brisbane, but the importance of the move has, from this season, found new meaning.

The strength of the Swans Academy has been a pain point for rival clubs and the subject of both ire and awe since its establishment.

In 2021, the Swans had almost 10 Academy graduates appear in their senior team. This year, one of them is captain: Callum Mills.

Since 2000, there has been an increasing localisation of the Swans captains. As the Giants dove into the talent pool with an emphasis on the ‘Western’ in GWS, the Swans duly cast their gaze east.

Where previously Swans were organically developed through the rich talent of the Riverina, and leaders like Paul Kelly, Leo Barry, Brett Kirk and current quick Harry Cunningham, today’s talent hails from the beaches.

Callum Mills, from Sydney’s north shore and in his first year as a co-captain, is exactly what the Swans need to enrapture young, potential Aussie rules players, and draw them away from the junior lists of Sydney’s NRL and cricket clubs.

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While the Covid-19 and bubble disrupted seasons may have exacerbated the issue, an eagerness to return to a home state is not a new phenomenon.

A homesick 22-year-old, Nick Davis broke Collingwood hearts in his trade request to return to Sydney after the 2002 season.

After being picked up by the Pies under the father-son rule, Davis’s designs to return to Sydney bucked the trend of clubs losing players south, and the key-forward became an integral part of the Swans, both in their premiership season and now, well into his playing retirement.

When he joined the team in 2003, the Swans were still trying to carve out an identity in the Harbour City.

“Even in 2003, 2004 when I joined the club from Melbourne, the team was really trying to delve back into the history of the side, from back in the South Melbourne days and define what we wanted to make of it as our own brand,” Davis says.

“Representing Sydney and NSW the right way was a key part of that discussion I think.

“Leo and Kirky coming in as captains was pretty important to the brand and since then there’s been a changing of the guard to other NSW people as well, like McVeigh and Jack following them.”

Davis currently operates as the youth development coach for the Swans, providing a unique insight into what the Swans’ future may look like.

Picking talent holes and shaping players to fill them is one part of the job. Identifying the club‘s future leaders is another, with Mills’ potential for higher honours among Davis’s finds.

“I’ve been able to coach Callum Mills through the Academy,” Davis says. “Leadership and probably teamwork were his major skills through the Swans Academy.

“We identified him pretty early as a really strong leader. Callum is such a workhorse.”

Davis’s job is not only to develop such talent, but retain it. In the code wars that have long dominated Sydney’s sporting landscape, it’s no easy feat.

Mills moved through the Swans Academy at the same time as future speccy star Isaac Heeney, whose talents were obvious early on and could have easily landed him in a number of codes.

So good have the Swans been at developing athletes that Mills and Heeney’s graduating class was rounded out by Tom Trbojevic and Seattle Seahawks punter Mike Dickson.

The Swans were lucky to keep two of the four, but highlighting one of them as club captain goes a long way to paving pathways to new juniors at a similar code crossroad.

Davis believes having a local captain was key for Mills’ own leadership path.

“I think Jarrad McVeigh and Keiran Jack saw what Kirky and Barry had achieved and thought, ‘I want to strive for that,’ and then, Dane Rampe saw what it meant and he wanted to strive for it.

“Callum Mills saw where Rampe was going and he wanted the same. It’s been a natural evolution.”

For Mills himself, the notion rings true.

“It was just so nice to be selected,” Mills says. “To captain a club that I supported growing up, I don’t know how many people have had that opportunity but it’s pretty special.”

That’s the kind of sentiment the Swans want to hear. It might just adorn the walls of the Swans Academy locker rooms in years to come.

Despite Davis’s assertions that the midfielder was a natural fit right from the start of his Swans journey, Mills seems genuinely humbled by his selection.

“From being in the development of the Academy, I have a real sense of home,” he says. “Being at the club is something I’m really privileged to do. I’m a Sydney boy and now to captain the club, that is a real honour.”

Captaincy seems to agree with Mills too. His average kicks and marks are already up in 2022, and there’s a new confidence Davis has noticed in both his play and communication.

“There‘s been a lot more on field leadership now with less runners on the field. Mills has to make sure that things get done without constant communication from the coaches and from the sidelines it looks like that’s happening really smoothly,” Davis says.

That famous ‘Bloods’ culture that Davis saw rise under Stuart Maxfield, which evolved to embrace its Melbourne heritage but root itself in Sydney, is now under Mills’ charge to disseminate through his ranks.

“It’s been trotted around for a long time, but that Bloods culture, the culture that we started back in 2003 has retained a culture of values,” Davis says.

“It’s winning values but also teamsmanship and while a lot about the club is flashy, I think it’s hard work that gets you votes as captain. I think Mills is the right person to continue that culture.”