The last time Hayley Miller and I spoke, it was in a Melbourne hotel conference room during the 2021 season.

Miller was wearing a precautionary elbow brace, and as she sat alongside head coach Trent Cooper, he told me multiple times about how her leadership had developed significantly in recent months. Fast forward to December and Miller is now the captain of the Fremantle Dockers and ready to lead her charges into the 2022 season.

Miller was the first player ever drafted to the side back in 2016, and has been a fixture of the side for the last six years, playing 38 games in that time.

Transitioning from a member of the leadership group into Club captain has been interesting. Being reassured by outgoing captain Kara Antonio and Cooper that everything she has done in those six years is why she is in that position now, “so there’s no real need to change any of that… but every second person is calling me ‘skip’ or ‘capt’ and that still sounds weird.”

I joke that she just needs to remember to go to the toss at the start of each game.

“And I have to remember that I’ve got to run out first, and I have to talk to the girls beforehand. I’ll probably put my hand in there and wait for Juddy [Antonio] to start talking,” she laughs back.

FEATURED PART ONE | With Ange Stannett
FEATURED PART TWO | With Roxy Roux
FEATURED PART THREE | With Janelle Cuthbertson
FEATURED PART FOUR | With Mim Strom

Miller has a host of new faces to lead, too, with the Club drafting six new players during the off season. 

“It's new and it's exciting for them, and they just want to get in there and do everything right. It's really refreshing having people that are just super eager and excited to be there. I think that's the bonus of having new girls.”

Coming into 2022, Miller is focused on finding more consistency in her footy.

"I’ve worked really hard on my fitness and whatnot to be able to do that… so fitness shouldn’t be an issue, it’s more so remaining focused and switched on and making as much impact as I can throughout the whole game, not just in patches.” 

That consistency is something that the Club as a whole is focused on, not just Miller. After registering just 32.5% of their scores in first halves, Fremantle are keen to address their slow starts that plagued the 2021 season.

The game that comes to mind when talking about these slow starts is the round seven match against Carlton at Princes Park. Trailing all day and down by 15 points in the last quarter, the side remarkably came from behind to win.

“You’re testing my memory. All I remember is the last two minutes where we came back. I remember a few good pressure acts in terms of chase down tackles, smothers and things like that,” she says of her own performance. Funnily enough, that pressure showed on the stat sheet, with Miller registering a career-high ten tackles.

“Pressure is really important as an inside mid. A lot of the time you either want to halve the footy, or you want to get it going forward… Pressure is one of the main things that we talk about as a midfield, because even if they do get an exit, if they’re under pressure it’s not going to be as clean and it’s going to be harder for their forwards to read it.”

We both knowingly mention the impact Kiara Bowers has on that pressure game. Then another teammate quickly becomes the topic of conversation.

“Oh, you’ve already heard about that?” Miller says almost sternly when I ask about an incident between her and ruck Mim Strom at training.

“Yes, yes. Mim stepped me. She sold me some candy and broke my ankles and I had to walk away with my head in shame. But to her credit, I went way too hard at it and she just saw that and went ‘oop, there you go, have some candy’ and off she went,” she says as I can feel her eyes rolling through the phone line.

“That’s a real stab to the ego when the ruck’s selling you some candy.”

Cooper was quick to request the footage to show it - multiple times - at the next training session.

It’s all fun and games, but for Strom, a timid person when first walking through the Club’s doors, to do that on the day Miller was named captain showed the growth in confidence players experience when backed in by the Club.

FEATURED PART FIVE | With Emma O'Driscoll
FEATURED PART SIX | With Bianca Webb
FEATURED PART SEVEN | With Steph Cain
FEATURED PART EIGHT | With Kara Antonio

With her mind set firmly on season 2022, Miller’s looking a little closer at one match up over the others. Set for round nine at Fremantle Oval, Freo will come up against the Demons, a team to whom they lost twice late in the 2021 season.

“For me, it’s a bit of that redemption feeling to it.” But it’s not just that, Miller tells me.

”I’ve always really enjoyed playing against Melbourne. They’re a really tough fight and they’re so tall and athletic as well… but it’s a fun, flowing style of footy so I think we always play in these really exciting games.”

But for now, the focus is on a round one RAC Derby against West Coast, and Miller has to remember to lead her side out to kickstart her first season as Captain of the Fremantle Dockers.

Gemma Bastiani is the co-founder of Siren Sport, a collective of Australian women’s sports advocates, content creators and fans providing coverage to women's sport across the country. To read more of Gemma Bastiani's work, head here.