Callum Mills (born 2 April 1997) is a professional Australian rules footballer and co-captain of the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He won the 2016 NAB AFL Rising Star Award for his outstanding breakout season.

Early life

Mills was born in Sydney and grew up on the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the en ...

. His grandfather, Ray Mills, played Australian rules football for the

Perth Football Club The Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club based in Lathlain, Western Australia, currently playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Representing the south-east area of the Perth metropo ...

in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September ...

(WAFL) and represented

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

through the 1960s. Callum was an avid Sydney Swans supporter as a child and idolised Swans' forward

Tony Lockett Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he is considered one of the greatest ...

. He began playing Australian rules football at the age of four through the

Auskick Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian rules football (AFL) to boys and girls aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective pr ...

junior program, but gave the game away at seven years of age to play

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

with his school friends. He played representative junior rugby with

Warringah Rugby Club Warringah Rugby Club is a rugby union club based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales. Only located 25 km from the city centre, the club is close to many magnificent beaches, the Sydney Academy of Sport and Narrabeen Lake. T ...

's underage representative team which won three consecutive state championships (2008-2010) alongside Brad Parker and

Simon Kennewell Simon Kennewell (born 2 January 1997) is a professional Rugby Union player. He represents Australia in sevens rugby. Born in Collaroy, New South Wales, Kennewell joined the Australian Sevens program in September 2015 after impressing at the ...

. In 2010, aged 13, Mills was approached by then- Sydney Swans chairman

Andrew Pridham Andrew Pridham (born 24 August 1966) is an Australian investment banker. He is the Co-founder and Group Vice Chairman of financial services firm MA Financial Group as well as Chairman of AFL Club, the Sydney Swans. Career Originally from Ade ...

to fill in for the Mosman Swans junior Australian rules football team. He impressed enough to be placed in the Sydney Swans talent academy later that year and gave up rugby union. Mills later revealed the Swans' academy was the major influence in his decision to play Australian rules football instead of rugby union when he was a teenager. He won the under 16's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

at fourteen years of age for the Mosman Swans and he was ultimately named club champion in 2012. In 2014–15, he was cleared to play in the

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Vic ...

competition as a member of the

NSW/ACT Rams The NSW/ACT Rams is an under 18 Australian rules football representative club in the TAC Cup. The team, under the guidance of AFL NSW/ACT represented New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and had the moniker of the Ram, partly ...

and during this period he also played four games for

North Shore North Shore or Northshore may refer to: Geographic features Australia *North Shore (Sydney), a suburban region of Sydney **Electoral district of North Shore **North Shore railway line, Sydney *Noosa North Shore, Queensland * North Shore, New So ...

in the premier division of the

Sydney AFL AFL Sydney is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. The AFL Sydney competition comprises 126 teams from 22 clubs which play across seven senior men's divisions, five women's divisions, a Master's Divisi ...

competition.

AFL career

Mills was selected by the Sydney Swans with their first selection and third overall in the 2015 national draft. He was initially bid on by , however Sydney matched the bid under the new live bidding rules implemented in the 2015 draft. He was given the number 14 guernsey, made famous by three-time

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

list and Australian football hall of famer,

Bob Skilton Robert John "Bob" Skilton (born 8 November 1938) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Playing as a rover, Skilton is one of only four players to have won the Brownlow Medal three tim ...

and former club captain and Brownlow medallist, Paul Kelly. He made his debut in the eighty point win against , recording 18 disposals in round one, 2016. After the 38-point win against , he was the round 16 nomination for the

Rising Star Rising Star or Rising Stars may refer to: People and characters * Rising Star, a pseudonym of the DJ Armin van Buuren * Aurvandil, the Rising Star, or Morning Star; in Germanic mythology Books * ''Rising Stars'' (comic), a comic book series by J ...

where he recorded 23 disposals, six marks, and four rebound-50s. He was ultimately the winner of the Rising Star, receiving the Ron Evans Medal with 49 votes out of a possible 50. He became the third Sydney Swan to win the award. Following a promising debut season, Mills re-signed with the Swans on a five-year contract that will see him remain at the club until the end of 2023. At the start of 2022 he was named one of the Swans co-captains.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2022 season''. , - , 2016 , , , , 14 , 22 , , 1 , , 3 , , 231 , , 177 , , 408 , , 105 , , 50 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 10.5 , , 8.0 , , 18.5 , , 4.8 , , 2.3 , , 0 , - ,

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, , , , 14 , 24 , , 1 , , 2 , , 267 , , 148 , , 415 , , 121 , , 59 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 11.3 , , 6.1 , , 17.2 , , 5.0 , , 2.5 , , 0 , - ,

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, , , , 14 , 9 , , 0 , , 1 , , 101 , , 72 , , 173 , , 44 , , 23 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 11.2 , , 8.0 , , 19.2 , , 4.9 , , 2.6 , , 3 , - ,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, , , , 14 , 22 , , 1 , , 0 , , 231 , , 174 , , 405 , , 136 , , 58 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 10.5 , , 7.9 , , 18.4 , , 6.2 , , 2.6 , , 0 , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

, , , , 14 , 15 , , 0 , , 1 , , 164 , , 164 , , 271 , , 77 , , 49 , , 0.0 , , 0.1 , , 10.9 , , 7.1 , , 18.1 , , 5.1 , , 3.3 , , 2 , - ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, , , , 14 , 18 , , 6 , , 1 , , 256 , , 239 , , 495 , , 107 , , 95 , , 0.3 , , 0.1 , , 14.2 , , 13.3 , , 27.5 , , 5.9 , , 5.3 , , 18 , - ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

, , , , 14 , 25 , , 10 , , 3 , , 360 , , 250 , , 610 , , 165 , , 158 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 14.4 , , 10.0 , , 24.4 , , 6.6 , , 6.3 , , 21 , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , Career ! 135 !! 19 !! 11 !! 1610 !! 1167 !! 2777 !! 755 !! 492 !! 0.1 !! 0.1 !! 11.9 !! 8.6 !! 20.6 !! 5.6 !! 3.6 !! 44 Notes

Honours and achievements

Team *

McClelland Trophy The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away s ...

(): 2016 Individual * Sydney captain: 2022– * Bob Skilton Medal: 2022 *

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

* 2× 22under22 team: 2014, 2015 * Brett Kirk Medal: 2018 (round 3) * AFL Rising Star nominee: 2016 (round 16)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Callum 1997 births Australian rules footballers from Sydney NSW/ACT Rams players Living people North Shore Australian Football Club players Sydney Swans players Bob Skilton Medal winners AFL Rising Star winners