Injured Swans star Callum Mills is not solely to blame for the Mad Monday antics that will cost him the start of next season and potentially Sydney’s co-captaincy too, Brad Johnson and Eddie Betts have agreed.
Mills is facing a delayed start to the 2024 season amid reports he ruptured his rotator cuff while wrestling with a teammate.
The Swans have since confirmed they are “extremely disappointed” in Mills, who has already undergone shoulder surgery as a result.
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But Johnson believed the Mills injury was “just an accident” and one many other players would have faced during a Mad Monday celebration and simply “got lucky”.
“As bizarre as this is going to sound, I actually don’t have an issue with it – they are adults. They make the decision and they’ve just got to live with it,” he said on AFL 360.
“It’s on them – it’s on the players.
“If he doesn’t recover from this … and the back end of his career is not as good because of the injury he’s sustained in this situation, that’s on Callum.
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“I don’t know the full scenario yet.
“There’s all these things – it’s just an accident that’s happened.
“We’ve been in situations. I’m not saying I’ve never been in a Mad Monday where we’ve been mucking around and things get a little bit over the edge and you walk out a bit lucky (saying) ‘We walked out of that one – phew!’
“We’ve all done it – some get through and some don’t.
“I’m not shying away from being in scenarios myself – you’re lucky sometimes and sometimes you’re not. But it’s on you.”
Betts said it was up to leaders at the club to set the standards – and recalled using a yellow and red card system at the Crows to ensure players didn’t stray too far during Mad Monday celebrations.
The AFL great explained players would be put on waters for a yellow card and then placed in a taxi and sent home for a red card infringement.
“Knowing your co-captain was fooling around … there is a lot of stuff that goes on at these Mad Mondays and sometimes it can get out of hand,” he said on AFL 360.
“As a team and as a group, you need players there to look after one another not to make silly decisions as well.
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“The group and individuals, you have to make the right decisions. This one was obviously the wrong one.
“He can’t do anything about it now.
“He’s probably embarrassed about it now.”
While Johnson and Betts agreed Mills just made a mistake, the Bulldogs great said he couldn’t see how Mills stays on as co-captain next season.
“At the end of next year … (or) when his contract is up, who’s to say Sydney is going to renew that contract now? It could happen. It has happened before,” he explained.
“(An ex-coach) used to say ‘we won’t punish you for making a mistake – you just won’t be here at the end of the year’.
“It’s pretty simple in my mind – it’s on these adults out there.
“He’s not (co-captain) anymore – I don’t think he can be off the back. You can’t captain from the sideline.
“Yes, he’s still got a great standing at that footy club – Callum Mills is an upstanding man, he’s a good man and he’s a good leader.
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“But I think in this situation from a football point of view, that he’s not out there leading so therefore I don’t think he can go on with that (co-captaincy).”
AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson said the Swans were left “furious” with Mills’ actions which could cost him up to 12 months on the sidelines in worrying signs for the club’s hopes in 2024.
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