Adelaide defender Wayne Milera has delivered a ruthless assessment of Sydney post-game on Saturday night, after his side’s emphatic 15-goal smashing of the opposing Swans.
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Speaking to ABC Sport after the match in the changerooms, the 111-gamer hinted towards discontinuity in the game of their rivals — labelling them a “rabble”.
“You could sort of feel it as a group … they were sort of a bit of a rabble, just hearing them on the ground,” Milera told the radio station.
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The comments from the dashing defender have surprised many, given Milera’s humble and softly spoken nature. But as highlighted by Fox Footy’s Super Saturday Live panel, his valuation of Sydney speaks to where last year’s grand finalists stand in the competition at 4-8 after 12 rounds.
“It’s going to reverberate through two footy clubs, too, I think,” Fox Footy reporter Jay Clark began by saying.
“It’s the most damning post-match assessment of the season, and it’s come from Adelaide’s Wayne Milera … That is a damning assessment from an opposition player — ‘they were a rabble’.
“This is one of the proudest clubs in the competition. We know the history of the Sydney Football Club over the past two decades, and the champions that have played. They’ve been so consistent, and they’ve just been branded ‘a rabble’ by an opposition player from what he could hear them talk about on the field.
“Now, that is a big question mark. I think that’ll send shockwaves through the Swans, and I’d be interested — how do the Adelaide Crows handle a comment from (one of their players). Is it disrespectful? Is it just honest?”
After kicking the first goal of the encounter, Dean Cox’s side conceded 12 unanswered goals heading into half time as 14 individual goalkickers hit the scoreboard in an on-field mauling.
Asked if Milera’s comments were discourteous, three-time premiership Tiger Jack Riewoldt was adamant in his response.
“One hundred per cent that’s disrespectful (from Milera). Yeah, calling an opposition team ‘a bit of a rabble’ in a media sense,” Riewoldt stated.
“We’ve just come off the conversation with Matthew Nicks about they dropped Josh Rachele (last year) for ‘values’. I’d love to know where a comment like that sits in the values of the Adelaide Football Club.
“So, there’s clearly some big questions on that going forward, too.”
Two-time premiership Kangaroo David King came in from a different angle on the comments, believing Milera’s words were more of an error than anything ill-intentioned.
“He’s a guy that doesn’t have a history in this space. I can’t remember hearing him speak. I can’t remember hearing an interview from Wayne,” King said.
“I’d love to know what he was trying to say, whether he got his words wrong … I think it’s something you can fix with a phone call. I’d be surprised if Matty Nicks didn’t get on the phone and say ‘look, we were out of line here, we made a mistake, can we step through this and move on?’
“It’s just a simple error. I think he’s got his words wrong, and I hope this doesn’t become the story that maybe you think it will.”
Speaking on his side’s 90-point defeat in his post-game press conference, first-year head coach Cox was understandably very upset with his side’s performance.
The loss is the Swans’ fourth in 12 games by five or more goals, as their finals chances fade rapidly.
“It was unacceptable and embarrassing,” Cox began by saying.
“I didn’t expect that. On such a massive night for the footy club, when you have a 20-year reunion for a team that played desperate, uncompromising, ruthless football — and that was that far from it (tonight). So, we need to strip it back and get to work real quick — everyone.
“I said to them: Expect some tough sessions.”
Asked directly about Milera’s post-game comments, Cox added: “Obviously you want to try and be, as a football club, you want to make sure you’re as consistent, connected and compete together.
“So, what we need to make sure is that if we are doing that, we need to focus on what we can control.
“And I think, at times, players do get frustrated, but if it is coming in way too much, so we need to make sure that we speak about that — whether it’s individually or as a team, we will, and then drill into a little bit more for the specifics of who and when and why.”
Adelaide next Friday night host reigning premiers Brisbane in an Adelaide Oval blockbuster, while Sydney travel to the MCG to take on a young, fighting Richmond outfit.