Kris Miller’s final match to be Monday’s Foundation Derby

JUST in case the Foundation Derby on WA Day couldn’t get any bigger at Fremantle Oval this Monday, South Fremantle will have the added incentive of trying to beat East Fremantle to give one of the modern day WAFL’s true champions a fitting end to a remarkable career.

Kris Miller’s remarkably consistent and outstanding WAFL career will come to an end this Monday as the Bulldogs take on the Sharks at Fremantle Oval in what will double as his 150th match with South Fremantle and the last of his 303-game career with both clubs.

The 33-year-old is just the sixth player in WAFL history to reach 300 matches, will become the first in history to play 150 at two clubs and along the way he played in the 2009 premiership, won a fairest and best at East Fremantle, three with South Fremantle and played for Western Australia.

Perhaps even more so, though, is the fact that Miller has been remarkably consistent ever since making his debut in 1999. He has been a star performer and among his team’s best players in the majority of his 302 games to date and his commitment, dedication and form has never wavered.

He came into 2014 on the verge of playing 300 WAFL games and 150 with South Fremantle, but that was never the reason he played on. He did so fully thinking he would play the whole year.

However, he found himself in unfamiliar territory in the reserves for a month before returning in the loss to Peel Thunder and while Miller would have liked to play out the rest of the 2014 season, the WA Day derby will be his final appearance.

And considering everything he has achieved in his career, Miller doesn’t expect anyone to feel sorry for him that things didn’t end his way and it certainly won’t mean that he still won’t reflect back with fondness and pride on his career.

“I certainly don’t think anybody should feel sorry for me. I will have played 303 games of WAFL football and 150 games at two clubs so if you look at it like that then you can’t be too greedy,” Miller said.

“I wasn’t even sure if I would get to 150 games for a while there so I’m glad that I will get to achieve that. The fact that it turns out that it will be my 150th game for South, my last game and that it’s against East Fremantle in a Foundation Day derby, that will be a good occasion.”

Miller will certainly be going out on to Fremantle Oval giving it everything as well and doing all he can to try and help the Bulldogs score an important win that will keep them in the hunt for the finals. And if they end up playing finals, Miller will happily be cheering them on come September.

“I have never gone out there not trying to play the best I can so from that point of view nothing will change on Monday. I would like to win obviously and I haven’t even played in a win this year yet this year so that would be nice,” he said.

“I would also like the side to win because I think the boys have been through a couple of tough years and they deserve a bit of success. I still want them to do well. If they were fortunate enough to win every game from here, I wouldn’t go and watch them in a grand final totally flat that I wasn’t there.

“I’d be happy for them, I certainly wouldn’t be thinking that I could have been there with them even though I think I could potentially be. The fact that they would be there would be something I’d be happy to see.”

Miller told his teammates at training on Tuesday night of the decision that the Foundation Derby on WA Day this Monday will be his final game. It was probably the toughest thing in a football sense he’s had to do.

“It was harder than I thought to be honest,” Miller said.

Miller hasn’t had a lot of time to think of what his next step in football will be, but having spent his whole life as an adult in the game and with the experiences he has racked up in good and poor teams, there’s no doubt he has a lot to offer.

He would like to get involved in coaching and now for the rest of 2014 it might be the ideal chance for him to start preparing himself for that next phase of his career.

“I haven’t fully decided what I am going to do yet. I have been playing in the WAFL for 16 years so every Saturday in the winter has been taken up by footy. I’ve thought about a few things I’d like to do but I’m not sure exactly right now,” Miller said.

“I will take a little bit of a break from it all in some ways now. I would definitely like to coach though. This might give me a chance to freshen up, look at things objectively from the outside and look at other clubs and people a bit more closely to see how people operate. I haven’t put a great deal of thought into my future yet, but I guess I have the time to do that starting next week.”

KRIS MILLER FACT FILE

Born – September 29, 1980

WAFL Games – 302

WAFL Goals – 230

EAST FREMANTLE

Debut – Round 1, 1999

Games – 153

Goals – 143

2005 fairest and winner

Represented WA in 2002

Life member

Played in 2000 grand final

SOUTH FREMANTLE

Debut – Round 1, 2007

Games – 149

Goals – 87

2007 fairest and best winner

2009 premiership player

2009 fairest and best winner

2012 fairest and best winner

West Coast Eagles rookie-list

Sixth player to ever reach 300 WAFL games

First player to ever play 150 games at two clubs